Clipper Round the World - Gold Coast Australia starts Ocean Sprint

by Isabel Hokken on 24 Jun 2012 Clipper 2011-12 Round the World Yacht Race fleet are on day nine of race thirteen from Nova Scotia to Derry-Londonderry. It’s been ‘another day in the office’ for the teams over the past 24 hours with 25 knots of headwind, slamming into waves and living at a 30 degree angle the norm for ocean racing in the North Atlantic.

'The North Atlantic Ocean is a living breathing animal, who seemed particularly angry today, not friendly at all, but now she seems quietly content to let us go, making our lives hard but not desperate,' says Derry-Londonderry skipper, Mark Light, as he continues to push his yacht home to its home port.

Crewed by ‘people like you’ the Clipper Race offers the challenge of a lifetime to circumnavigate the world for people from all walks of life. Mark continues, 'The ocean has no respect for us or our boat; she does not differentiate between amateur or professional, young or old, sailor or landlubber.'

Despite Welcome to Yorkshire maintaining the lead, further south Gold Coast Australia, currently in second place, celebrated being the first yacht to cross the line of latitude marking the start of the Ocean Sprint at 0317GMT this morning; the crew will be aiming to set a sprint time for the rest of the fleet to beat for a valuable extra point. Meanwhile, Singapore skipper Ben Bowley was left frustrated as complications with sails brought the yacht to a halt for some hours during the night.

'What started as a broken guy and a swiftly dropped kite has turned into a disaster on the ‘Big Red Bus’. We have ended up with such a mess of halyards that we have been unable to raise any headsails or kites since midnight. If we don't get moving soon then we shall miss our express ride to the north west and the whole point of sailing more miles to the east will be negated,' reports a frustrated Ben Bowley.

Time is valuable at sea and with fierce competition breathing down their necks, every minute counts. In a tactical move New York, currently in eighth place, is playing its Stealth Mode card and will ‘disappear’ from competitors and the Race Viewer from 12noon GMT for 24 hours. Only the Clipper Race Office will know its position.

Geraldton Western Australia is currently in third place and with the frontrunners just over 900 miles from shore, the Clipper Race fleet is set to start arriving into Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, between 29 June and 1 July.

Latest boat positions (0900 UTC)

Position	Team	DTF	DTL
1	Welcome to Yorkshire	903NM	0NM
2	Gold Coast Australia	918NM	15NM
3	Geraldton Western Australia	966NM	63NM
4	Singapore	1024NM	121NM
5	Visit Finland	1055NM	152NM
6	Derry-Londonderry	1177NM	274NM
7	Edinburgh Inspiring Capital	1182NM	279NM
8	New York	1222NM	319NM
9	De Lage Landen	1333NM	430NM
10	Qingdao	1584NM	681NM

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