Paralympic champion Charlotte Evans completes 'best experience of her life'
by Marina Thomas 12 Mar 2016 06:20 PST
12 March 2016
Paralympic British champion Charlotte Evans completes Race 8 of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race aboard GREAT Britain © Clipper Ventures
Paralympic British champion Charlotte Evans has finished one of the 'toughest' and 'best experiences of her life', competing with the GREAT Britain team in a leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Charlotte Evans MBE, 24, who had never been on a boat before starting training last year, arrived into Qingdao, China, on Friday after sailing 6,985 nautical miles from The Whitsundays, Australia, with a stopover en route in Da Nang, Vietnam.
Charlotte, who guided her skiing partner Kelly Gallagher MBE to Paralympic gold at Sochi 2014, battled a massive range of conditions during her race, including a violent storm a few day out from China which delivered Force 11 gales with hurricane force 80 knot winds and waves of eight to nine metres.
"I've had the best experience of my life. I will never forget it. It was incredibly tough," Charlotte said during a spectacular welcome ceremony in Qingdao, China's Olympic Sailing City.
"I was so out of my comfort zone and had to learn something so new. It's amazing to be able to say I can sail a boat when even the thought of being on a boat was a big challenge to start with.
"I conquered a lot of fears, I've got a lot of things done on the boat and I've really enjoyed tested my mental capacity with a new sport.
"When the weather got really cold and we were heeling at a 45 degree angle, it was tough for everyone to stay upbeat and motivated, but we all really bonded as a team and I'm very sad to be leaving my GREAT Britain crewmates," Charlotte added.
Charlotte is one of four Olympic and Paralympic athletes who are competing as ambassadors on board the GREAT Britain yacht.
Olympic sprinter Abi Oyepitan completed the All-Australian leg, and Olympic Rower Bill Lucas crossed the Southern Ocean from South Africa to Australia. Olympic badminton player Nathan Robertson will cross the Atlantic Ocean from New York to London via Derry Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and The Netherlands.
Former UFC fighter Dan Hardy also took part in the opening leg from London to Rio de Janeiro, after which he said crossing the Atlantic was tougher than taking on any opponent in the octagon.
The Clipper Race, known as one of the toughest endurance events on the planet, presents a new physical and mental challenge for the elite athletes. Like 40 per cent of Clipper Race crew, none of the group, aside from Bill who sailed dinghies more than a decade ago, have any sailing experience.
The Clipper 2015-16 Race marks the tenth edition of the unique global event which was established by legendary sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston to allow anyone, regardless of previous sailing history, the chance to experience the thrill of ocean racing.
More than 700 amateur crew members are competing in the 2015-16 edition, representing 42 different nationalities. Organisers provide four weeks of intensive training which prepares crew for racing across the world's most challenging oceans. The only professionals on board the twelve identical 70-foot ocean racing yachts are the skippers.
The 2015-16 series is GREAT Britain's second entry in the Clipper Race following its second place finish in the 2013-14 edition. The GREAT Britain campaign is the Government's most ambitious international marketing campaign ever and showcases the very best of what Britain has to offer in order to encourage the world to visit, study and do business with the UK. The campaign is active in over 144 countries worldwide.