Another lap begins for Clipper Race

Portsmouth, UK (August 31, 2025) – The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2025-26 got underway today for ten teams representing over 40 nationalities, with the amateur crew led by an experienced skipper and first mate for this eleven-month endurance challenge around the world.

One of the Race Crew taking part is Gareth Brown, a city worker from Colchester, Essex, who recently retired to circumnavigate with the Clipper Race. “The best years of your life are spent commuting, or behind a desk and I am done with that now. There’s a world out there, with different lives to be had. I want a taste of that whilst I am still fit and able to.”

Competing against him is Wendy Greaves, a secondary school teacher from Lytham near Blakpool. “I lost my husband to motor neurone disease, and with my son off to university I didn’t want to rattle around the house and when the Clipper Race popped up on Facebook it looked like the perfect distraction.

“I wanted to do something challenging, that would put me out of my comfort zone. This will certainly be a challenge!”

The Clipper Race is unique in that it is open to anyone over 18, with no previous sailing experience required, taking people from all walks of life and training them to become ocean racers.

The youngest crew member taking part in this edition of the Clipper Race is Thomas Roy, 18, from Hamble, Hampshire. “After my mum passed away, I had some funds and the opportunity to take part in the Clipper Race. I am taking a gap year between college and university, and I am a dinghy sailor, and my mother was always a sailor, so I thought I would go for it.

“All my friends are busy buying things they need for university – I am also packing but it’s a bit more hectic, it’s very different things and my bag is a lot smaller!”

Event Details: www.clipperroundtheworld.com

About the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race:
The Clipper Race was established in 1996 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world in 1968-69. His aim was to allow anyone, regardless of previous sailing experience, the chance to embrace the thrill of ocean racing; it is the only event of its kind for amateur sailors.

Held biennially, the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race has a fleet of identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s that compete on a multi-leg course around the world. The team having the best cumulative score over the entire course wins the Clipper Race Trophy. Ten teams will compete in the 2025-26 race, with the 14th edition getting underway from Portsmouth, UK on August 31.

The course has eight legs which includes stops in Puerto Sherry (Spain), Punta del Este (Uruguay), Cape Town (South Africa), Fremantle and Arlie Beach (Australia), Subic Bay (Philippines), Qingdao (China), Tongyeong City (Korea), Seattle (USA), Panama, Washington, DC (USA) and Oban (UK) before returning to Portsmouth (UK) in summer 2026.

Source: Clipper Round the World Yacht Race