Clipper Round the World Yacht Race- New York leads 9/11 commemoration

by Anna Wardley on 10 Sep 2011 The Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race crew of New York, a 68-foot ocean racing yacht, is set to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks as they race from Rio de Janeiro towards Cape Town on Sunday.

Through their participation in the 40,000-mile round the world race, the New York crew is raising funds and awareness for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, a not-for-profit organisation created to design and run the Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center.

At 1246 GMT (0846 EST) on Sunday, exactly ten years after the first plane hit the Twin Towers, the team of 18 led by skipper Gareth Glover will hold hands and observe a minute’s silence before casting wreaths of remembrance into the Atlantic Ocean.

For the Clipper 11-12 crew members who hail from New York, the ten-year anniversary will be especially poignant.

New York crew member for Leg 2, Pat Coppolechia is a lawyer and a New York resident, and admits that Sunday will bring back powerful memories.

'In my wallet I’ve got the times that the planes hit the Towers and the times that they collapsed. It is certainly going to be on my mind and I’ll reflect on where I was when it happened and the whole impact it had on New York and the world as a whole. I think there’s going to be a moment of vulnerability and concern for those at home and everywhere around the world on the tenth anniversary,' Pat said.

New York is racing around the globe alongside nine other internationally sponsored teams, all of whom will put their rivalries aside to remember the people who died in the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 with a minute’s silence.

Just over ten years ago the biennial Clipper Race visited New York in August 2001, enjoying a stopover at Liberty Landing in New Jersey overlooking the Twin Towers after racing from Brazil. The fleet set sail on 31 August just 11 days before the attacks.
Former crew member Sarah Thorogood, who took part in Clipper 2000-01, said many of the crew enjoyed trips to the top of the Twin Towers during their visit to the city.

'We heard about the attacks mid-Atlantic when one of our crew called his son on the satellite phone. It was a huge shock and hard to comprehend when so many of us had been to the top of the Towers just a few days before. It didn’t fully sink in until we arrived in Jersey when we saw the shocking images,' Sarah said.

The New York team is endorsed by Empire State Development, the agency responsible for promoting business and economic development throughout the state, which is proud to see its powerful marketing message taken around the world on the yacht’s distinctive livery featuring the iconic ‘I love New York’ branding.

The Clipper Race was established 15 years ago by sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo and non-stop around the world in 1968/69. The name of the race was inspired by the trade routes followed by the early clipper ships and over a century later Sir Robin’s ten identical stripped down 68-foot ocean racing yachts are using the same trade winds to help global destinations boost business and tourism through their participation in this unique event. Each yacht represents an international city, region, country or company.

The race makes an official stopover in New York between the end of leg seven and the beginning of the eighth and final leg of Clipper 11-12.

The Clipper Race departed the UK at the end of July and raced to Brazil via Madeira. The ten teams are currently gearing up to start Leg 2 to South Africa on Saturday. After a well-earned stopover in Cape Town, the matched yachts will race to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Panama, USA, Canada, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands before returning to the UK just before the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games in July next year.

With the strap line ‘Raced by People Like You’, the Clipper Race is the embodiment of Sir Robin’s vision to enable people from all walks of life to experience the thrills and challenges of ocean yacht racing: ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Each of the teams is led by a professional skipper but the crews are all amateurs, nearly 40 per cent of whom have never sailed before undertaking their extensive pre-race training. Five hundred people will participate in Clipper 11-12 with around 100 racing the full 40,000 miles and the remainder joining for one or more of the eight legs of the competition.

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race website