Clipper Round The World Yacht Race - Henri Lloyd extends lead

by Julia Wall-Clarke on 2 Jun 2014 Clipper Round The World Yacht Race 2013-14 - Henri Lloyd celebrated its latest win on arrival into Liberty Landing opposite Manhattan this evening local time, strengthening its lead in the overall race standings with 137.9 points.

Canadian skipper Eric Holden and his team widened their lead over second placed Great Britain after scooping sprint and scoring gates on top of their first place in Race 13 from Port Antonio, Jamaica to New York, USA, to clinch the Grange Hotels Trophy.

Skipper Eric Holden commented emphatically 'It was pretty intense but we collected the triple crown of Ocean Sprint, Scoring Gate and line honours, this has been an amazing race. There are only five weeks left so it is really now or never. It is time to really up our game. The crew are really great, they are pushing really hard, and they are hungry for the win.'

Noting his teams welcome party, Eric acknowledged: 'We’ve always said New York is our unofficial home port as we have a lot of North American’s, a lot of Americans, and a few New Yorkers even on the team. It has been fantastic and probably our best reception on the race yet.'

The first Clipper Race teams started to arrive at dusk with the bright lights of Manhattan creating an iconic skyline to welcome the triumphant crews.

Great Britain duelled with all the podium contenders but lost out to Henri Lloyd in the end, maintaining their second place 14.9 points behind on 123 points overall.

'It is not what we were hoping for in this race, we really needed to net a bunch of points but unfortunately that’s ocean racing for you, especially coastal ocean racing, which is what this has been. We’re still really pleased to have got the result we got,' said Great Britain skipper Simon Talbot. To complete the podium places OneDLL’s distinctive blue hull appeared out of the darkness after midnight in New York, still maintaining third place overall with 116 points.

Derry~Londonderry~Doire and Switzerland also put in competitive performances and are now sitting in fourth and fifth overall on 105 and 96 points respectively. Both teams are expected into Liberty Landing marina between 03:00 to 04:00 local time (07:00 to 08:00 UTC)

Race 14, the highly anticipated final Clipper Race Leg eight starts from Manhattan’s North Cove Marina on Saturday 7 June. This leg will return the fleet to London’s Tower Bridge as triumphant circumnavigators, via Derry, Londonderry in Northern Ireland and Den Helder in the Netherlands.

Grange Hotels, a team partner of the Great Britain entry, is London's Leading Luxury Hotels group; in addition to the winner’s Trophy there is a hamper for the winning team. The award recognises that London and New York have an exceptionally close cultural, economical and historical relationship and Grange Hotels enjoys a special relationship with many corporations, organisations and individuals from New York and across the US.

The full overall Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Race standings at the end of Race 13, The Grange Hotels Trophy, are as follows:
1 Henri Lloyd 137.9
2 Great Britain 123.0
3 OneDLL 116.0
4 Derry~Londonderry~Doire 105.0
5 Switzerland 96.0
6 Qingdao 82.0
7 Old Pulteney 79.0
8 Jamaica Get All Right 74.0
9 PSP Logistics 70.3
10 Invest Africa 61.0
11 Team Garmin 58.0
12 Mission Performance 37.0

Standings

Position - Team	DTL
Henri Lloyd	0NM
Great Britain	0NM
One DLL	0NM
Switzerland	1NM
Derry~Londonderry~Doire	0NM
Jamaica Get All Right	91NM
PSP Logistics	148NM
Old Pulteney	113NM
Mission Performance	251NM
Qingdao	251NM
Team Garmin	148NM
Invest Africa	185NM