Clipper Round The World Race - Strong winds and challenging conditions

by Clipper Ventures on 12 Sep 2013 The Clipper Round The World race fleet have faced strong winds and challenging conditions in the last 24 hours, and with team OneDLL reportedly experiencing wind speeds in excess of 44 knots, there’s no surprise that Henri Lloyd has set a new Clipper 70 speed record reaching over 30 knots yesterday.

Race Director, Justin Taylor says: 'Reported wind speeds have provided perfect conditions for the yachts to produce surfing speeds of 20 plus knots and skipper Eric Holden on board Henri Lloyd has reported a top speed of 30.7 knots. These speeds are pretty much what we expected from the performance of the Clipper 70. What makes them even more remarkable is that many of the skippers are sailing conservatively, at least until they have bedded their crews in more and they become more skilled at helming and sailing the boats in these fantastic offshore conditions.'

After another night of close racing it has been all change at the top of the leader board with Henri Lloyd pinching the lead from GREAT Britain, with a lead of over 10 miles from second place Derry~Londonderry~Doire and OneDLL now in third place.

Scoring Gate
During Race two to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil the fleet will have the opportunity to pick up some extra points with the help of a Scoring gate.

This is not a compulsory gate for the race but the first three yachts through the gate will be awarded three, two and one points respectively. The skippers will be asked to record the GPS time (Universal Time) of crossing the scoring gate and email the race office with these timings within 12 hours. The Scoring Gate shall be between Scoring Gate one west at position 19 degrees north and 26 degrees west and Scoring Gate one east at position 19 degrees north and 23 degrees west which you can see pinpointed on the (Race Viewer).

Ocean Sprint
During Race two there will be an Ocean Sprint. The Ocean Sprint shall be between the lines of latitude five degrees south and 10 degrees south. Skippers shall record the GPS time (Universal Time) of crossing each of these lines of latitudes. These timings shall be emailed to the race office soon after crossing each of the relevant lines of latitude. The photographs from the Ocean Sprint winner will be checked at the next stopover as a matter of course and the yacht with the shortest elapsed time for the Ocean Sprint will be awarded two points.