Jamaica Lightning Bolt enters Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race

by Heather Ewing on 24 Aug 2009
Olympic gold medallist sprinter Usain Bolt was on hand to help celebrate the announcement that Jamaica will field an entry in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race.

Jamaica’s Minister for Tourism revealed the entry at a media conference for leading sports journalists in Berlin at the end of the IAAF World Championships.

The boat, named Jamaica Lightning Bolt, in honour of the fastest man on earth, will compete against nine identical stripped down 68-foot yachts in the 35,000-mile race around the world. It sees the Caribbean island’s return to the event after first fielding an entry in the 07-08 running of the Clipper race.

Jamaica Lighting Bolt will compete against international entries including Spirit of Australia, Uniquely Singapore, California, Qingdao, Cork, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital and Hull & Humber. Sponsors recognise that the Clipper Race provides a cost effective and high impact platform to promote tourism, attract inward investment and generate a strong sense of community engagement.

The race is unique because the crews are all non professionals – and 40 percent of them were new to the sport of sailing before beginning the obligatory training programme. The crew taking part come from 33 nationalities and range in age from 18 to 69.

Each yacht is led by a highly qualified, professional skipper and taking the helm of Jamaica Lightning Bolt is Peter Stirling.

Commenting on the announcement from Berlin, Peter said, 'I can’t tell you how proud I am to be leading the team that will represent Jamaica. The race route will take in a visit to the island when we arrive at Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio next May and the team and I want to ensure that we arrive there in first place.'

Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett said, 'Sports tourism in Jamaica had a shot in the arm this week with Bolt’s amazing 100m world record time and with the gold medal performances from the rest of the Jamaican squad. To be involved again with the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is yet another element of our strategy to put Jamaica on the map by using our sporting events, our sporting heroes and our sporting facilities to show the world that we may be a small island but we are a great nation of sporting excellence.'

While Bolt covered 100 metres in a world record time of 9.58 seconds at the Berlin meet, and went on to break the 200m record, the racing crew will need to stay competitive for quite a bit longer – their circumnavigation will take ten months to complete.

Bolt is one of a long list of household names backing the biennial Clipper Race. State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has firmly endorsed the Californian entry while the most recent visitor to the Scottish entry Edinburgh Inspiring Capital was His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Clipper Race was founded by sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world. He wanted others to be able to follow in his footsteps regardless of previous sailing ability and this will be the seventh running of the race.

Sir Robin says, 'It’s great to welcome Jamaica back to the race track and we look forward to working with the Jamaica Tourist Board as we take their message, ‘Once you go, you know,’ around the world.'

The Clipper 09-10 Race will start from the Humber on the east coast of England on 13 September 2009, returning on 17 July 2010.