Youth dominate Clipper Race 2025-26

The world’s toughest endurance challenge, raced by everyday people from across the world, has come to a gripping end in Portsmouth, UK, almost a year after it set off. The 2025-26 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race had ten evenly matched 70-foot boats complete the 14th edition.

With each crew of amateurs having two professionals, the overall winner was led by 26-year-old Skipper Oli Irvine and 22-year-old First Mate Otto Kurlow. As the youngest professional pairing, they won seven out of thirteen individual races and for the first time in ten years, clinched overall victory at the end of the penultimate leg when they arrived into Washington, DC, USA.

“We left on August 31 last year, from this dock, and we have been to incredible places, seen things on board I never thought I’d see. We pushed hard, set high standards, and the crew lived up to them every single day. It was a privilege to lead a group of people who want to push hard.”

• Half the podium professional pairings were women
• Winner had the youngest Skipper and First Mate combination to ever win the Clipper Race
• First all-female Skipper and First Mate pairing to podium – Heather Thomas and Millie Apperley for Team Scotland finishing third.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is the only event that trains people from all walks of life to race around the world. Some 40 percent of participants have no previous sailing experience before signing up. Led by a professional Race Skipper and First Mate pairing, the ten teams have raced over 40,000 nautical miles around the planet.

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.

Some crew do the complete course while others select their legs. 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