Derry~Londonderry~Doire hoping to break Clipper Race home port curse

(June 19, 2014) – Derry~Londonderry~Doire is the first Clipper Race team to finish the Ocean Sprint with a time to beat of 24 hours 20 minutes, 56 seconds and is still leading the fleet in the battle to break the home port curse and be first into Northern Ireland.

The 12 teams began Race 14, the 2850 mile leg from New York City to Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on June 7. Derry~Londonderry~Doire is 700 miles from the finish.

The boats in the north have been putting in better runs than the southerly yachts. But with a high pressure system centered west of Ireland and wind coming from where the boats need to go blocking progress, the leading yachts could be forced in to a much longer beat in the final throws of the race.

GREAT Britain has moved up into second, leapfrogging Jamaica Get All Right, now in third position.

Gareth Glover, skipper of Qingdao, in tenth, said: “With us opting for more of a north easterly than northerly course, boat speeds were lower than the rest of the Clipper 70 yachts to our north which means we have lost more miles to them.

“But at some point they will all have to tack east as they reach the edge of the high pressure system just west of Derry-Londonderry. We hope that is where we will pick back up the lost miles and make gains on the rest. With over 800 miles to go, all upwind, a lot will still happen on this race yet.”

Old Pulteney has requested to go into Stealth Mode and its position will be hidden from the fleet from 0600UTC today until 0600UTC tomorrow.

Skipper Patrick van der Zijden said: “We managed to gain more on the boats in front of us and are currently positioned ninth.

“The conditions are not ideal for the Ocean Sprint as the wind is coming from the direction we would like to go to make it a fast passage across. The crew are working hard to keep us going, so let’s see what the next schedule brings us.”

OneDLL, PSP Logistics, Henri Lloyd, GREAT Britain and Jamaica Get All Right have now entered the Ocean Sprint course, and are vying for the two bonus points for the fastest time across the section marked at the lines of latitude 27W and 24W.

Report by event media.

Skipper reports: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-reports
Crew diaries: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diaries
Race tracker: http://yb.tl/clipper2013-race14
Race website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Background:
The 40,000 mile Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race began in London, UK on September 1 for the fleet of twelve identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s.

The 12 teams began Race 14, the 2850 mile leg from New York City to Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on June 7. The fleet is estimated to arrive by June 21.

The race route includes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; Albany, Sydney, Hobart and Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Qingdao, China; San Francisco, USA; Panama; Jamaica; New York, USA; Derry-Londonderry, Ireland; and Den Helder, Netherlands before returning to London on July 12.