Tasmanian skipper selected for Clipper race

by Loretta Spridgeon on 2 May 2005 David Pryce (34) from Tasmania, Australia, has won the race to skipper the Westernaustralia.com Clipper, the 68-foot yacht sponsored by the state of Western Australia, which will compete in the international Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race.

Clipper 05-06, the world’s longest circumnavigation race, sets sail from the city of Liverpool (UK) on Sunday, 18 September 2005, and returns in the summer of 2006 after some 35,000 miles of intense competition on the high seas.

Fremantle has been selected as the first-ever Australian stopover for the prestigious event, scheduled for late December 2005.

Designed by Dubois Naval Architects, one of the World’s foremost yacht design houses, and built by Shanghai Double Happiness Yachts in China, the magnificent 68ft Westernaustralia.com Clipper yacht is one of a ten-strong fleet to be raced by international teams of 17 crew and a skipper.

Race organisers Clipper Ventures Plc, the AIM-quoted marine events company chaired by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, today officially revealed all 10 skippers chosen to skipper in the prestigious Clipper 05-06 Race; namely David Pryce (Australian), Tim Magee (British), Craig Millar (South African), Graeme Johnston (Scottish), Mark Taylor (British), Jonathan Bailey (British), Richard Falk (Australian), Danny Watson (British), Ewan Hind (British) and Conor Fogerty (Irish).

The Westernaustralia.com Clipper team will face strong competition from a formidable international field - including Liverpool (England), Durban (South Africa), Singapore, Glasgow (Scotland) and race title defenders Jersey (Channel Islands).

David Pryce, originally from the attractive township of Bowral, joins the Westernaustralia.com Clipper campaign from a strong sailing background as an adventurer and Naval Architect, bringing a wealth of experience and leadership skills to Western Australia’s ocean racer.

Amongst an impressive array of sailing qualifications, David is an RYA Ocean Yachtmaster, a YA Yachtmaster, and already has five Antarctic expeditions under his belt - sailing to the south magnetic pole and Cape Denison, often purported to be the windiest place in the world.

David’s enthusiasm for adventure on the high seas started early, when he sailed a three-masted Antarctic expedition vessel with a crew of mountaineers at the tender age of 12. With many years sailing experience both inshore and offshore, David has raced on the smallest yacht to ever successfully complete the Melbourne to Osaka double-handed yacht race and he also skippered the 55ft cutter Arctos on an around the world expedition.

David will lead the Westernaustralia.com Clipper crew around the globe on a newly challenging route. The course starts by following the traditional tea clipper route to Australia via Southern Africa, providing a sleigh ride through the Roaring Forties of the infamous Southern Ocean.

After a brief respite to catch their breath, the boats will head for Singapore and China before taking the passage across the northern Pacific to the west coast of Canada and the United States. The Panama Canal follows, then the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast, before the final dash across the northern Atlantic to the Channel Island of Jersey and home to Liverpool.

With so many ocean miles already notched up, David is well equipped to provide the necessary guidance to the Westernaustralia.com Clipper crew, many of whom were sailing novices prior to joining the Clipper race training programme. A keen mountain biker, David will lead the crew through a wide variety of weather systems which require a diverse range of sailing skills.

Commenting on his appointment, David said: ‘Sailing around the world is one of the great adventures of our time. Part of this challenge is that it is not easy, but then if it were it would not provide the satisfaction of the achievement.

A key part of the challenge for me will be to get the WA crew racing as fast and as safely as they can in the varied conditions that the Clipper race presents. As a native Australian, I will take great pride in representing Western Australia around the world as our racing yacht takes on the other international teams.’

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Chairman of Clipper Ventures Plc, commented:

‘Tackling this unique challenge, with its roaring gales and towering seas, as well as the frustrations of tricky calm spells, is no mean feat, but I am confident that the skippers we’ve selected are very much up for the challenge of competitively racing the new Dubois yachts around the world.

‘The individuals must also balance the needs of our city sponsors and official race partners, as well as having the ability to draw the line between competitiveness and safety, whilst also motivating a sometimes exhausted crew into an enthusiastic and committed team.

‘Congratulations are due to each of the final 10 skippers, as they have been thoroughly put through their paces in the most demanding skipper selection we have had to date.’

On Saturday 4 June, the Clipper crews will be assigned to the teams in which they will embark on the gruelling maritime marathon and will be introduced to their respective skippers at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool.

This will be the moment, after months of anticipation, that the crews discover which nation they will represent for their participation; it will also be the first time that the crews discover who they will be sharing their ocean racing experience with and have an opportunity to get to know fellow crew members.

Western Australia’s involvement in the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race has been secured by EventsCorp, a division of Tourism Western Australia, and Fast Track Sailing, the exclusive global commercial and media partner for the event.