Clipper Round the World Yacht race - Team Finland in San Francisco

by Clipper Ventures on 20 Apr 2010 It was an early morning arrival in to San Francisco for Team Finland, and although the sun had yet to rise, the crew were treated to a warm welcome by a crowd of family members and fellow crew. The Finnish entry in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht race sailed under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge at the end of an eventful North Pacific race having left Qingdao, China, two weeks after the rest of the Clipper fleet.

Team Finland had been dismasted in rough seas during the previous race and it was always going to be a race against time for the team to rejoin their competitors for the start of Race eight to Panama. Now alongside, work will begin immediately to ensure that Team Finland can set off with the rest of the fleet tomorrow, Tuesday 20 April.

Despite being the last team to complete the 5,690-mile leg, Team Finland has been awarded 8.3 points by the Race Committee, their average points up to and including Race six. This was due to the delays with their replacement mast, stepped in Qingdao, that were outside their control. The team now has an overall point’s tally of 58.3 which places them in third place on the leaderboard behind Spirit of Australia and Jamaica Lightning Bolt. The three podium positions for Race seven went to Cape Breton Island, Jamaica Lightning Bolt and Qingdao respectively.

Racing across the North Pacific in winter was always going to deliver some challenging conditions for the amateur crews and for Team Finland’s competitors, a series of depressions and associated storm force winds delivered some of the toughest sailing conditions of the race so far. The Finnish entry were challenged in a different way and instead of heavy downwind conditions, the crew has battled with strong head winds, high pressure systems and their associated light winds.

Team Finland’s skipper, Rob McInally, says, “Now I’m here I can look back and say it’s been an amazing adventure, but along the way there were some moments when everyone was feeling the pinch of the Pacific. It dealt us some nasty cards but the closer we got to here the better the atmosphere was on board and the greater the sense of achievement amongst the crew.”

“We’ve prepped ourselves for here as much as we can as far as the boat’s concerned and the crew’s ready. All we need now is a bit of help from the maintenance team to do some additional work and we should be ready to go again in time for the race start.”

Now the boat is alongside, Clipper’s maintenance team will jump on board to begin the task of turning the boat around as quickly as possible. Several of Team Finland’s joining crew, along with a number of crew from other boats, are also standing by to begin the deep clean and allow the Race 7 crew to have some much needed time ashore before the start of the 3,329-mile race to Panama.

Finnish round the world crew member, Emil Vartiainen, is already chomping at the bit to get going again and re-establish his team at the top over the overall leaderboard, despite having only just stepped on to dry land, his first time ashore in more than four weeks.

Vartiainen says, “It was a much longer journey than we thought it would be and soon we will be off again, but we’re feeling good and keen to get racing.”

“The Pacific leg was tough. We had a lot of challenges. Not in regards to looking at our position in relation to the rest of the fleet as we’re used to, but there were a lot of different types of challenges which we got over as a team. In a way we are now stronger than when we started this race.”

The Clipper 09-10 Race started from the Humber on the north-east coast of England on 13 September 2009 and will return there on 17 July 2010. It is the only event in the world where people from all walks of life can take on the challenge of a lifetime and race around the globe on stripped down 68-foot Ocean racing yachts.