Clipper boats turn green for St Patrick's Day

The Clipper 09-10 fleet has turned 40 shades of green to celebrate St Patrick's Day as the yachts race across the Pacific Ocean towards San Francisco. Meanwhile three of the teams have even more to celebrate having picked up Scoring Gate points. Cape Breton Island took the maximum three points followed by Jamaica Lightning Bolt scoring two for crossing in second place and Uniquely Singapore claiming a point for third.

California has two of the Cork team on board for this race and Gavin Kelly and Noreen Osborne are ensuring there is a party spirit amongst their crew, despite the disappointment of narrowly missing out on a Scoring Gate point.

Skipper Pete Rollason says, "It's been a mixed day on board 'Corkifornia' as we have been dubbed, fourth through the Scoring Gate for the second race in a row but we are sailing well and fast and feel that over the next 48 hours our southerly position in relation to the fleet will benefit us when some very light winds occur on the 19th. All I can say is watch this space as Corkifornia will be on a charge. We led for the first six days and the crew plan to lead at the end, as for what happens in the middle, it really doesn't matter!

"We have a steady 20 to 25 knots out of the south pushing us along nicely at ten to 12 knots in a relatively calm sea. The St. Patrick's Day festivities have been great on board today with our two Irish crew members renaming each of us with an Irish name, decorating the boat (more like covering it with green shamrocks) and generally causing mayhem but all good fun and just what the doctor ordered and a little light relief for the crew before some hard racing ahead. Happy St Patrick's Day!"

The Cork crew are delighted to share their national holiday with fellow sailors many of whom claim Irish roots. In fact over 70 million people worldwide claim Irish heritage and the St. Patrick's Festival is an opportunity to celebrate being Irish. The Feast of St. Patrick is now celebrated in nearly every country throughout the world where Irish descendents have continued to reinforce its popularity. Among the countries with strong traditions of celebrating St Patrick's Day are obviously the United States, Canada and Australia, but also less obviously France, Argentina, Russia and Japan  - and now this year it is even being celebrated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! The Clipper 09-10 fleet is due to arrive in Kinsale and the Port of Cork between 1 and 4 July 2010 for an eight-day festival which will showcase the best of Cork to many thousands of family, friends and visitors and international media who will visit the region during the festival.

Mike Lewis is one of Cork's round the world crew members sailing on Edinburgh Inspiring Capital while the team waits to come together again in Panama to take delivery of their new vessel, details of which were announced this week.

Mike says, "Celebrating St. Patrick's Day on the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 nautical miles from the nearest land, has to be one of the more unusual things I've done thus far. But distance from home cannot stand in the way of marking this most Irish of days, so I've attempted to bring some Irish 'craic' onto Edinburgh Inspiring Capital.

"With some goodies sent from home and from our sponsors, Fáilte Ireland, Cork City Council and Cork County Council, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital has been turned into an Irish boat for the day. The Irish flag flew proudly from the backstay this morning until the 30 knot winds threatened to shred it and it was forced to retire below. There have been Irish tattoos, big Irish hats and wigs, and Irish chocolate being appreciated by the crew here.

"It has also been a day of learning - the opportunity for the crew here to learn 'cupla focail' cannot be missed. So far, 'cead mile failte' has been successfully mastered. 'Shona la feile Padraig' was relatively easy for most. 'Go raibh maith agut' is being called a little cumbersome next to a simple 'thank you', and there are similar feelings about 'mas e do thoil e'! But it's a definite ten out of ten for effort over here!"

Acting skipper of Spirit of Australia, Bob Bell, reports, "a visit by the leprechauns today to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!" Corkonian Sarah Boyle is currently racing with the Australian team and doing her bit to spread some Irish 'craic' through the fleet.

The Australian entry is racing in company with Hull & Humber from where skipper Brendan Hall, who transferred from Spirit of Australia, reports "Both ourselves and Spirit of Australia have picked up the pace and have started making gains on the boats ahead of us.

"We've had fast, very pleasant sailing on Hull & Humber these last 24 hours. The wind is at the perfect angle and ideal strength for these boats, which handle like a dream in these conditions. When you are standing at the helm, it's easy to momentarily forget about the race and the points and the podium and simply enjoy the feeling of the hull powering through the water and the sails above you flying proud and true. The distance to finish is ticking downwards perceptibly."

Indeed the lead boats now have fewer than 3,000 miles between them and the finish line in San Francisco and Cape Breton Island is holding on to her lead over the rest of the fleet.

Skipper Jan Ridd says, "After the jubilation of passing the Scoring Gate in first position our focus is now back on to the race and the finish in San Francisco. With Jamaica Lightning Bolt eating a large chunk of miles out of our lead overnight we cannot afford to let up the pressure at all as we are all too aware of Jamaica Lightning Bolt's abilities.

"As we approached the Scoring Gate last night the wind got lighter and lighter and we were all fearing that we might stall out completely. In order to keep the boat moving we had to steer quite a way off our optimum course but eventually the wind filled in and we crossed the line.

"At the schedule we receive every six hours we discovered that Jamaica Lightning Bolt had taken a sizeable chunk out of our lead and we can only assume they did not experience the same patch of light airs that we did. So this morning see us pushing hard again for the finish trying to maintain or extend our lead with everyone focused on keeping up boat speed. It looks like we could be running into some lighter airs in a couple of days time, let's hope that we get lucky and find some wind the other boats don't!"

Orla Mellett, one of the round the world crew members from Cork is temporarily racing with the Cape Breton Island team following the grounding of Cork in the Java Sea in January. Orla, from Galway, said, "We have managed to pull out some Irish bits and pieces - hats, flags and shamrocks - so given that we're not on our own yacht we have decided to bring Ireland to Cape Breton. We're lucky that Cape Breton Island has strong Celtic links as well so they're not unaccustomed to the way we like to celebrate things at home!"

And while all the celebrations have been going on, the serious business of racing is always on the teams' agendas. Qingdao has been quietly chipping away just behind California while Uniquely Singapore, as well as targeting the points on offer at the Scoring Gate, has always had an eye on overall routing strategy for the race.  

Uniquely Singapore's skipper says, "We are all pretty chuffed at getting the gate point as it has been hard work and it almost marks the half way point. We had beautiful sailing conditions last night with stars in the sky, crisp in the air and good boat speed. As I write we are expecting the tail end of a cold front to come through which could mean some more squally weather before it settles down over the next few days as we sit in between the highs and lows.

"Our minds now are looking a few days ahead as the latest GRIB files are showing the big low forming which will dominate a massive area and bring with it some hefty wind and conditions. The question is whether to take the gamble and stay south, hoping that once the low has moved through a high won't come in and leave us floundering in no wind; or do we head further north and take the heavier winds and stay on the Great Circle route? Needless to say we will be studying any weather info very closely to pick our best course."

POSITIONS AT 0900 UTC, WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH 2010

1 Cape Breton Island DTF 2887
2 Jamaica Lightning Bolt DTF 2960 DTL +73
3 Uniquely Singapore DTF 2998 DTL +111
4 California DTF 3070 DTL +184
5 Qingdao  DTF 3082 DTL +196
6 Hull & Humber DTF 3118 DTL +232
7 Spirit of Australia DTF 3119 DTL +232
8 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital DTF 3162 DTL +275
9 Team Finland DTF 5456 DTL +2570
10 Cork Did not start