Strong Caribbean winds test Clipper fleet on leg to New York
The crew members of the
world’s longest yacht race are finding their sea legs again, as competition
heats up in day two of Race 11 to New York.
“It is fast, exhilarating wet
and slightly wild,” sums up Gold Coast Australia skipper Richard
Hewson.
It’s been busy for all then
68-foot yacht entries currently at the south of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea.
Qingdao’s racing came to a brief halt, as a crew member attached by his
safety line was washed overboard.
“It brought home to everyone the
importance of the safety procedures we have to follow at all times, and showed
the value of the Clipper Race training as the crew dealt with the situation
perfectly. Luckily for us the worst outcome of the situation was that he lost a
shoe,” says skipper Ian Conchie.
Throughout the fleet sail
changes are back on the agenda, with the Clipper Race crew getting back into the
routine of rough ocean racing, enduring up to 20 knots of wind. Drama continued
elsewhere, with Singapore’s Yankee 1 ending up in the sea and crew
working hard to recover the sail. Similarly on Derry-Londonderry
skipper Mark Light describes his unlucky day starting with a Yankee 1
headsail making a break for freedom and ending with a bowl of cereal being
thrown of him!
The fleet remains close
together, with entries having overtaken each other during the night. Currently
leading the fleet is De Lage Landen, closely followed by Gold Coast
Australia and Singapore.
For now all ten Clipper Race
entries remain focused on getting up to the Windward Passage, a strait between
the island of Cuba and Hispaniola , the fastest to get the vital Scoring Gate
points up for grabs.
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