Clipper 70 round the world Yacht race

[Purosangue]

Is anyone following the Clipper round the world yacht race , 40,000 nm , 11 ships




We have a friend on Clipper Bekezela , was down at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth for the Start for the weekend , great event , live music , shows .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbQYO2qZkq4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=861lbJmVeSg


Really great family day out . You could go on board a clipper and explore both inside and on deck , amazed how claustrophobic they are inside with 21 crew members on shift , and "hot berthing" , when you go on shift , your opposite crew member uses your bunk !.

progress with live timings can be found here

https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standing...

warning its addictive viewing , watching the different bearings the skippers are taking. , wouldn't fancy the North Atlantic , however sailing from South Africa to Australia .

Edited by Purosangue on Tuesday 5th September 12:56

[phumy]

I did 2 legs on the British Steel Challenge in 92/93, i did the leg from Hobart to Cape Town, then Cape Town to Southampton. Must admit it was the toughest thing ive ever had to do sailing the wrong way through the Southern Ocean but what an experience and Im still in touch with some of the crew of the yacht i was on.

[Purosangue]

phumy said:

I did 2 legs on the British Steel Challenge in 92/93, i did the leg from Hobart to Cape Town, then Cape Town to Southampton. Must admit it was the toughest thing ive ever had to do sailing the wrong way through the Southern Ocean but what an experience and Im still in touch with some of the crew of the yacht i was on.

Hi Phumy,

great with your experience can you explain what the tactics are in this race ? , I've been following daily but can make no sense in the direction the boats are taking from the suggested race line

if you see current position below , I understand wind directions etc , but some boats are sailing in to the wind and making no head way at all





its also frustrating from a viewing perspective , used to Le mans commentary , where you get updates every hour , on the Clipper web page just a few word regarding the start . They have a dedicated team monitoring the positions its a shame not to get more in depth commentary , perhaps that's the difference between motor racing and yacht racing

thanks

[OutInTheShed]

Purosangue said:

....

its also frustrating from a viewing perspective , used to Le mans commentary , where you get updates every hour , on the Clipper web page just a few word regarding the start . They have a dedicated team monitoring the positions its a shame not to get more in depth commentary , perhaps that's the difference between motor racing and yacht racing

thanks

I think commentary would be people sat on the shore saying things like 'why the fck don't they tack?' and 'where are they going now?'.
For a fleet of identical yachts with pro skippers, it doesn't look good.
Seem to be spread out by nearly 10%.
Obviously they have different expectations of how the wind will shift next.

It's also complicated by sailing two races at once, there are points ofr the leg, but also the 'sprint' within the leg.

I can't think of anything worse than being the 10th or 12th person on one of those boats once you've realised your skipper isn't competitive.

[Purosangue]

OutInTheShed said:

Purosangue said:

....

its also frustrating from a viewing perspective , used to Le mans commentary , where you get updates every hour , on the Clipper web page just a few word regarding the start . They have a dedicated team monitoring the positions its a shame not to get more in depth commentary , perhaps that's the difference between motor racing and yacht racing

thanks

I think commentary would be people sat on the shore saying things like 'why the fck don't they tack?' and 'where are they going now?'.
For a fleet of identical yachts with pro skippers, it doesn't look good.
Seem to be spread out by nearly 10%.
Obviously they have different expectations of how the wind will shift next.

It's also complicated by sailing two races at once, there are points ofr the leg, but also the 'sprint' within the leg.

I can't think of anything worse than being the 10th or 12th person on one of those boats once you've realised your skipper isn't competitive.

Its a major event , with the race teams being constantly monitoring the positions of each vessel by race control , they have live feed CCTV on each vessel so race control can view the Helm of each ship in real time , With all that info , I would have thought race control would be able to keep a blog going on positions / speed etc every couple of hours .

I was thinking the same thing "Bekesela" 6 hours ago was in 8th place , with 11th "Ha Long Bay Vietnam" (in last place ) running 50nm behind , Now Bekesela is in last place effectively losing 50nm

[OutInTheShed]

Purosangue said:

Its a major event , with the race teams being constantly monitoring the positions of each vessel by race control , they have live feed CCTV on each vessel so race control can view the Helm of each ship in real time , With all that info , I would have thought race control would be able to keep a blog going on positions / speed etc every couple of hours .

I was thinking the same thing "Bekesela" 6 hours ago was in 8th place , with 11th "Ha Long Bay Vietnam" (in last place ) running 50nm behind , Now Bekesela is in last place effectively losing 50nm

It's a funny event.
I don't think they've exactly committed to 'viewer engagement'.

Personally I am a little cynical of it, having been close to some people involved.

It's not entirely a sporting event, it's kind of adventure tourism crossed with Jeux Sans Frontier meets Big Brother.
The boats are very slow for their size and run in such a way as to keep the passengers busy.
The people involved are quite varied but quite a lot of them I wouldn't trust on a boating lake.
And that starts right at the top.

Reporting sailing events is a difficult job.
If a skipper really did have a good reason for tacking off at around 90degrees to the mark bearing, you can be very sure he's not going to share it.
Either he thinks he knows something about the wind, or some other tactical factor. Tracking the Fastnet was bad enough.

[Speed 3]

A friend of ours did the North Atlantic leg a few years ago on "Great Britain" so we followed the whole series. It was the year they had two fatalities and one emergency medical evacuation in the Atlantic. Very sobering seeing what can happen to amateur "adventurers", one of the fatalities had to to be buried at sea as they were so far from land (southern ocean or Pacific, can't remember which). IIRC the fatalities were on the same boat and the captain retired mid-race as they couldn't deal with it.

The massively changing conditions across the zones was amazing on the video feeds. North Atlantic ice line was particularly compelling. Our friend definitely wouldn't do it again.

[ben5575]

phumy said:

I did 2 legs on the British Steel Challenge in 92/93, i did the leg from Hobart to Cape Town, then Cape Town to Southampton. Must admit it was the toughest thing ive ever had to do sailing the wrong way through the Southern Ocean but what an experience and Im still in touch with some of the crew of the yacht i was on.

Ha, how random My father sponsored one of the boats the same year. I don't suppose you're in this photo are you?

[Purosangue]

update




watching live feed most days , the routes Bekezela is taking makes no sense and consiquently dropping further behind currently 262 nm behind the leaders , what is significant , The light blue ship UNICEF , even stopped for 4 hrs in Cape Verde ? no idea why but managed to get out of port and make up time currently 6 place 156 nm ahead of Bekezela . It appears from following the route and the average knots which are comparable to other teams , its purely navigation decisions

either way knowing how competitive my mate is , Im sure he will be very frustrated with progress

[guillemot]

UNICEF stopped for a Medevac.

[Purosangue]

guillemot said:

UNICEF stopped for a Medevac.

yes so did Bekezela