Hull & Humber win Race 9 of the Clipper

by Sail-World on 8 May 2008
Hull & Humber has won Race 9 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race, crossing the revised finish line at 20:22 GMT on Tuesday 6 May. It is the team¹s third individual stage victory of the 35,000-mile race which is being contested by ten internationally-backed 68-foot yachts.

Skipper Danny Watson says, 'It was incredibly close racing from start to finish. Gybing under spinnaker at night with Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper a quarter of a mile away on our beam was pretty exciting stuff! Routing repositioning meant you dropped from first to mid-fleet within a sched. We needed to have belief in our navigation which ultimately paid off.

Keeping Hull & Humber moving in the lightest of airs required a tremendous team effort from all but everyone brought something to the table. We have belief and pride in abundance!'

Qingdao was second across the finish line at 23:13 GMT, followed nine minutes
later by New York in third place at 23:22 GMT.

The results are provisional until all the skippers have submitted their race declarations for scrutiny by the race committee. If the results remain as they are Hull & Humber¹s victory will take them into overall first position, one and a half points ahead of second placed New York.

Because of the lighter than expected winds that the fleet has been experiencing since leaving the Californian port, and the forecast for the coming days, yesterday the Race Committee made the decision to shorten the course for Race 9, in accordance with the Sailing Instructions.

The finish line is now off the coast of Mexico at Gate Angel, one of several pre-determined gates included in the Race 9 course. The rest of the fleet is expected to cross the finish line over the next 36-48 hours and will then motor sail towards Panama, with the arrival of the first yachts anticipated on 13 May.