The Clipper Round the World Race - a perspective

by David Schmidt, Sail-World North America on 24 Oct 2015 While around-the-world ocean racing is typically the province of highly skilled, professional sailors who usually already have several “laps” under their belts by the time the starting guns fire, there is one big and important exception to this stereotype: The Clipper Round the World Race.

The Clipper, as it’s often called, is unique in that it takes a fleet of identical, Tony Castro-designed 70-footers and staffs each vessel with qualified and experienced professional skippers; crewmates are comprised of sailors who pay to participate in an offshore adventure of a lifetime that involves significant amounts of time in the storm-battered Southern Ocean.

And while some Clipper sailors arrive at training with thousands of miles of sailing under their belts, others define the term “greenhorn”.

For the skippers, this presents an interesting challenge: Not only do they need to work on basic teambuilding, but-in some cases-they also need to instruct sailing’s basic skills, all in an offshore-racing environment. Further complicating matters is the fact that some sailors sign on for the entire race, while others sign on for a leg (or a few legs), meaning that the skipper is in constant team-building and instructing mode.

This week, the Clipper fleet arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, after experiencing a lumpy Leg Two, which took the fleet across the Southern Atlantic from Rio De Janeiro. While plenty competitive, this leg also exposed crews to their first taste of the ocean conditions to come in the next two legs (Cape Town to Albany, Western Australia, and then from Albany to Sydney, Australia).

“Rio to Cape Town gives the boats the first taste of the Southern Ocean,” said the legendary skipper Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to race nonstop and solo around the world, as well as the Clipper’s founder.

“This is significant because it’s the only part of the world where there’s no land stopping the waves rolling all the way around the world, so you do get very, very big waves,” continued Knox-Johnston. “Plus, of course, you get these big, deep depressions building up between the continents and Antarctica, so it can be quite a ferocious spot, and indeed, some of the boats did run into some very big seas, which is a taste of what’s to come.”

The boats at the front of the pack experienced a nail-biting finish, with only 10 minutes separating GREAT Britain’s winning transom from Derry~Londonderry~Doire’s second-placed bow; Mission Performance was the third boat to cross the finishing line, less than three and a half hours after Derry~Londonderry~Doire.

Impressively tight finishing-line deltas, especially considering that the leg was 3,500 miles and that none of the crews were polished units when they pulled out of Rio. In fact, these finishing-time deltas are reminiscent of the frontrunners in a Volvo Ocean Race leg, where professional sailors push considerably faster boats to their breaking points.

To get a pulse on the scene at the middle-to-back of the pack, I caught up with Huw Fernie, the skipper of Visit Seattle, who was still several hours out from Rio and sailing through gale-force conditions during our call. “We’ve had a bit of everything,” said Fernie about the conditions that Visit Seattle experienced en route from Rio.

“We sailed from 20 degrees south to 40 degrees south, so we’ve had a bit of everything that goes with [those latitudes], from flat calm where you’re struggling to get the boat going to days like today, with the wind coming at you at all angles.”

As for his team-building efforts, Fernie is careful to blend his personal style with the crew’s capabilities and interests. “I spend a lot of time studying the weather with the interested crewmembers. As for my on-deck style, instead of getting everyone to specialize in one or two things, I want to turn people into super-star teachers. Every so often I give a master class, but it’s a fine balance.”

While Fernie reported that numerous crewmembers suffered from seasickness at the start of Leg Two, this had passed by the time the bows were pointed at Cape Town. In fact, it was blowing 40 knots-with puffs into the low 50s-when I spoke with Fernie, who was happy to report that the storm sails were up and that everyone’s dinner was staying down.

Ultimately, Visit Seattle was the ninth boat out of 12 to cross the finishing line off of Cape Town. And while Fernie and his crew are no doubt excited to be ashore and with their friends and family, Fernie’s mind was already moving on to the next leg, which will take the fleet to Western Australia.

But instead of a crew of 20, Fernie will be sailing with only 18 crewmembers, which could make things challenging if mal de mer starts claiming sailors. “The Southern Ocean makes for an interesting team-building environment,” said Fernie. “It will be an exciting Leg Three!”

For now the skippers and crews can relax, but Leg Three is slated to start on October 31, and the exciting miles are all still to come, with the fleet heading for Sydney and the December 26th (Boxing Day) start of the Sydney to Hobart race.

Exciting times for the Clipper Round the World Race, so be sure to stay tuned for more Clipper-related news, as the race unfurls.