Clipper around the world

This amateur race has its detractors but as Andy Rose reports, the participants know they are the real deal.

Giving it all up and sailing round the world has probably crossed most people’s minds at one time or another. But for those who compete in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race that seemingly far-fetched idea has become
a thrilling reality.

Unlike any other round the world race every Clipper crew member is an amateur, a person like you or I, who decided to sign up and go for it. The race is the brainchild of sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who wanted to give everyone the chance to follow in his globetrotting footsteps.

In the seven races since 1996, more than 2,000 people have taken up the gauntlet
to earn their sailing colours, with the crews drawn from all corners of the world and from all walks of life, from doctors and chief executives to students and the retired.

The youngest this time around is just 18 while the oldest is 69. Some come with sailing experience of one sort or another, while many have never set foot on a yacht and struggle to tell their port from their starboard before embarking on their training.

“I read the training manual and it might as well have been written in a foreign language,” says Spirit of Australia crew member Penelope Rance. “My only experience of boats before I signed up was working as a deckhand in the Whitsundays scrubbing the heads and cleaning the galley. I’d never actually done any sailing and in fact I’m hydrophobic and petrified of the sea.

“That still wasn’t enough to stop me becoming hooked on the idea of sailing round the world so when I walked past a poster one day advertising the race I just thought why not. Three days later I had signed up to do the whole race.”

A year on and Rance is now an assistant watch leader and confidently running operations on the bow. “It’s flattering that a lot of people assume I had sailed before coming on Clipper,” she says. “When I started my training I was the only person on board who either didn’t own a boat or sail regularly on someone else’s. That was intimidating at first but the thing about the kind of sailing we are doing is that very few people are actually experienced at it. I’ve gone from having zero experience to having 17,000 miles under my belt in the space of a year.”

Taking part is not cheap, working out at roughly AUS$2 for every one of the 35,000 nautical miles. But where there is a will, there is clearly a way with houses and cars often sold and careers put on hold to provide the time and money needed to take part.

“For me it was a choice between riding a motorbike around the world or sailing,” says Mike Hanssen, a 36-year-old company director from Perth. “I wanted to find that friendship and trust that you only find out on the ocean. I’ve met some fantastic people and I think they will be there for life. I’ve got their back and they’ve got mine when the hairy moments come.”

Hanssen was an experienced inshore racer and four-times state champion before he headed to the UK last year to learn the ropes on board one of the 10 Dubois-designed Clipper 68s. His managerial skills saw him quickly marked out for a watch leader’s role, when the race started in Hull in September last year.

“I’ve probably had a very different experience to many of the crew and from the one I wanted at first,” he says. “I didn’t actually want to be a watch leader, it just kind of happened. But when you have that responsibility on board sometimes the sailing has to take a back seat while you deal with the people side of things.”

Terrifying seas, squalls, hurricane strength winds, biting cold, stifling heat, lack of sleep and cramped living conditions that would trouble a Spartan are some of the more common challenges facing the crews on a daily basis.

They may have escaped the daily grind of nine-to-five in an office or factory, but instead it is replaced by an energy sapping watch system working four hours on then four hours off – 24/7.

Rance says: “It’s been interesting to see what I can push myself to do, especially in light of my fear of the sea. I knew myself pretty well beforehand but the experience has also given me a much greater insight into other people. It’s been a bit of a wake up call in that respect. When you live in people’s pockets you can’t help but get to know them very well.

“Some people have impressed me and I’ve been amazed by the lengths they will go to for the team and to achieve a common goal. On the flip side, other people have stunned me by how self-centred they can be. Maybe I was naïve but it’s been a good life lesson.”

Racing across the Atlantic, Southern Ocean and Pacific is never easy, whether professional or amateur. Rance says: “My body hurts a lot and my fingers will never be the same. I think my skin will be saturated for the rest of my life. You can’t help but be changed by this. We’ve seen and experienced things that very few people get to see and once or twice I’ve genuinely been in fear for my life.”

The race is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Hanssen says: “The biggest change we’ve been though as a team came on leg two between Rio and Cape Town when we had a series of crash gybes at night. All hell was breaking loose but looking back I’m glad it happened early in the piece.

“The moments I’ve learnt most about sailing are when a spinnaker goes under the bow or when the steering goes because a sheet has snagged on it. You really start learning when everything is going wrong around you. From that moment on I knew I was with a team of sailors not just a bunch of amateurs unwilling to commit to what needed to be done.

“There was shock afterwards but people realised at that point that this is serious and we need to work as a team. That’s what sailing is about for me. I can’t win a race on my own, nor can the skipper. That was the moment people switched on and we became a proper sailing team.”

Yet the race still has its detractors within the professional sailing fraternity who sneer at a perceived lack of ability and seamanship. Several incidents during the current race have provided more ammunition for such a view, with the fleet now one boat lighter after Cork was abandoned on rocks after running aground in the Java Sea. A man overboard in the Atlantic (successfully recovered) and a T-bone on the start line in Cape Town also helped to keep the race in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

The pressure on the shoulders of the skippers is considerable, especially as they are the only professional yachtsmen on board. But Spirit of Australia skipper Brendan Hall is coping admirably, with his boat riding high in first place after five races.

At 28, Hall is the youngest skipper and among the youngest within his own crew but believes he has already won one of his most important battles. “I feel I’ve had to earn a lot of respect amongst the other skippers,” says Brisbane-born Hall. “I was written off quite early on and people thought they would get the jump on me because of my age and relative lack of experience.  But I’m happy to say we have now established ourselves within the fleet as a competitive boat.”

Hall has been surprised by the demands he faces on a daily basis out at sea, although not for the reasons he thought.

“Initially, I thought the real challenge as skipper would be guiding an inexperienced team through things like spinnaker gybes,” he says. “But what I thought were going to be issues just haven’t turned out that way at all. The real challenge has been keeping our community of 16 or 18 people happy and working and living together as a team.

“I’ve discovered a race skipper needs to be a psychologist, a counsellor and even a doctor rather than just a tactician. I see it partly as a job and a way to build up my sailing cred and experience, but just to be able to sail around the world in any capacity, never mind a race, is something to be proud of personally and professionally.”

If his crew continue to build on their four podium finishes to date, Hall hopes more ocean racing opportunities will float his way. But Rance is keenly aware of how some of the outside world views Clipper, admitting: “There is a bit of snobbishness among the professionals about whether it is a true race in their eyes. For me in many ways it’s tougher because we are amateurs and not a handpicked crew. That in itself should garner respect. The racing is important but it won’t be recognised by anyone outside of Clipper. But if you were to walk the boards looking for a ride at Cowes Week, skippers would happily take you as crew. It’s commonly accepted they turn out people who can sail.

“When July 17 comes round if we’ve won it will be amazing but if we haven’t I’m not going to carry it with me for the rest of my life. A month later it won’t matter to me because
I will have still sailed round the world.”

For Hanssen the racing is the key to his enjoyment. “Anyone can sail around the round and I had an offer to do deliveries with a guy who has done it three times solo,” he says. “But it was never just about going round the world. For me it was about competing and trying to win a race. That attracts people to Clipper. I joined up because I want to compete and so did probably 90 per cent of the others. As much as they say they just want to learn how to sail, ultimately they want to win as well.”

The current race sold out proving again there is still no shortage of people looking for adventure on the high seas. The 2011/12 race is now recruiting with a new leg to New Zealand and a second Australian stopover in Sydney – in addition to the existing one in Western Australia – adding another 4,000 gruelling miles to the existing route.

“It’s doing the tough things in life that give you satisfaction,” says Sir Robin, who in 1969 became the first person to sail single-handed non-stop around the world. “Take the hard route and afterwards look back on it and say, ‘I did something pretty special’. That’s what all of them are doing. When they come back they will be different – we’ve seen it in every race. They’ll have faced nature in the raw, put up with a cold wave going down the back of their neck at 2am when they’ve just woken up. But they will have achieved something to be very proud of.”

The fleet is due to arrive back in Hull, England on July 17. For more information go to www.clipperroundtheworld.com.