Clipper Round the World Yacht Race fleet fight through tropical storm

by Ruth Harrington on 22 Jun 2012 Clipper 2011-12 Round the World Yacht Race fleet are on day seven of race thirteen from Nova Scotia to Derry-Londonderry. It has been an eventful 24 hours for the ten strong fleet of racing yachts. With a tropical storm threatening to hamper the fleet’s progress, it seems nothing will stand in the way of the teams’ individual determination to win that coveted podium position, and those valuable extra points.

As reported yesterday tropical storm ‘Chris’ which has been the cause of some challenging conditions for some of the fleet in the past 48 hours, has now started to pass reports Clipper Race meteorologist, Simon Rowell, 'Tropical storm ‘Chris’ should be starting to ease off now. Once that gets back to a normal Atlantic low the whole thing should slowly move off to the north east.'

While a tropical storm might deter the most seasoned of sailing professionals the Clipper Race fleet fought on and the Welcome to Yorkshire was the first entry to cross the Scoring Gate yesterday at 15:46 GMT winning three extra points. Geraldton Western Australia followed at 03:58 GMT and won two points. There is still one point up for grabs for the third place on this optional Scoring Gate in the race course. With just three points separating fourth place Singapore and fifth place Welcome to Yorkshire, the top of the overall leader board continues to get closer.

Qingdao is still making its way towards Newfoundland, following an incident yesterday morning, where crew member Lynn Harmer fell below deck and banged her head during unsettled weather conditions. Lynn, 61, from Hull, is still stable and her condition is unchanged. The yacht skipper is currently 24 hours away from shore and is in contact with the Falmouth Coast Guard and the Clipper Race Office. Further updates will be posted on the website.

The Clipper Race fleet is set to arrive into Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland between 29 June and 1 July.

Latest boat positions (1200 UTC)

Position	Team	DTF	DTL
1	Welcome to Yorkshire	1191 NM	0 NM
2	Gold Coast Australia	1218 NM	27 NM
3	Singapore	1235 NM	43 NM
4	Geraldton Western Australia	1244 NM	53 NM
5	Visit Finland	1312 NM	121 NM
6	Derry-Londonderry	1397 NM	206 NM
7	Edinburgh Inspiring Capital	1426 NM	234 NM
8	New York	1480 NM	289 NM
9	De Lage Landen	1550 NM	358 NM Stealth Mode: position at 0000 UTC 21 June 2012
10	Qingdao	1652 NM	461 NM

Full positions are updated every three hours and can be found online along with daily skipper Clipper Round the World Yacht Race website