Photo L Katiyo
After all the preparation and the training, the twelve 70 feet yachts yesterday left the safe harbour of St Katherine’s Dock and the razzamatazz of the start of London to sail serenely down the Thames to begin the World’s longest yacht race properly.
Photo L Katiyo
The first Clipper Race crew left Plymouth in October 1996 and during the race’s 18-year history, 3,000 people have taken part and 55 ports have played host to the Clipper Race. It is one of the greatest endurance tests sailing 40,000 nautical miles to race around the world on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht. Divided into eight legs and 16 individual races, it is the only race in the world where the organisers supply a fleet of twelve identical racing yachts, each with a fully qualified skipper to safely guide the crew.
Photo L Katiyo
Watching the yachts sail around the Isle of Dogs it a worth reminding ourselves the ordeal that face the crews who are a mix of professional sailors and amateurs. Some of the crew will do the entire journey whilst other do individual stages.
Photo L Katiyo
The first leg sees teams travel 6,000 miles to Brazil’s Rio De Janeiro. then yachts will go on to South Africa, Western Australia. Queensland, Vietnam, China. Seattle and New York.The final leg sees the yachts travelling from New York back to London, where they are due at the end of July next year.
Photo L Katiyo
Full Route
Leg 1 London, UK – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Leg 2 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Cape Town, South Africa
Leg 3 Cape Town, South Africa – Albany, Western Australia
Leg 4 Albany, Western Australia – Sydney – Hobart – Whitsundays, Queensland
Leg 5 Whitsundays, Queesnland – Da Nang, Vietnam – Qingdao, China
Leg 6 Qingdao, China – Seattle, USA
Leg 7 Seattle, USA – Panama – New York, USA
Leg 8 East Coast USA – Derry-Londonderry – Den Helder – London, UK
Photo L Katiyo
Teams
ClipperTelemed+
Da Nang – Viet Nam
Derry~Londonderry~Doire
Garmin
GREAT Britain
IchorCoal
LMAX Exchange
Mission Performance
PSP Logistics
Qingdao
Unicef
Visit Seattle
On a very busy day on the river, the Chilean Training ship Esmeralda left the dock.
Photo Eric Pemberton
Photo Eric Pemberton
Isle of Dogs Life 