38. 20+ Clipper Race Facts

• The Clipper Race is the world’s biggest round-The-world ocean race, and is also regarded as one of the toughest endurance challenges on the planet.
• At 40,000 nautical miles long and taking almost a year to complete, it consists of eleven teams competing  against each other on the world’s largest matched fleet of eleven 70-foot ocean racing yachts.
• Over 700crew are expected to take part in the 2019-2020 edition. Crew can choose to take part in either the entire race or one or more legs.
• The Clipper 2019-2020 Race will set sail in the summer 2019marking the event’s twelfth edition. It will return some eleven months later.
• The Clipper Race was established in 1996 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world in 1968-69. His aim was to allow anyone, regardless of previous sailing experience, the chance to embrace the thrill of ocean racing.
• 40 percent of crews are novices and have never sailed before starting a comprehensive training programme ahead of their adventure. It is the only event of its kind for amateur sailors.
• There is no upper age limit, the oldest competitor to date was 74. Crew must be aged 18 or over before starting the race.
• This unique challenge brings together everyone from chief executives to taxi drivers, nurses, and firemen, farmers, Olympians, airline pilots and students.
• The Clipper Race Charity Partner for the 2019-2020 and the 2021-2022 editions is UNICEF. To date crew, supporters and Clipper Race Partners have raised over £690,000 for the charity race since the partnership began.
• The overall route is split into 13 races and points are awarded for each race. The team with the highest cumulative points at the end of the final race wins the series, and the Clipper Race trophy.
• It is estimated that the eleven teams will get through 561,000 tea bags while at sea over eleven months.
• More than half a million litres of water is filtered through the fleet’s water makers.
• On each yacht, round the world crew members will spend on average a minimum of 504 hours stood at the helm.
• Each crew member will burn around 5,000 calories a day.
• The biggest waves reported during the 2917-2018 race were over 14m tall, officially classified as a phenomenal sea state, during Leg 6 across the North Pacific.
• The highest wind speed recorded was 94 knots during Leg 6 onboard Liverpool 2018, that’s 108mph.
• The crews completed a combined total of over half a million training miles BEFORE the 2017-2018 race started.
• To date the Clipper Race fleet has visited more than 50 different ports around the world.
• During the race the fleet are closer to the International Space Station than inhabited land for approximately 40% of the time.
• During the previous edition, the following countries were represented by a single crew member: Romania, Portugal, Peru, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Greece, Chile, Bulgaria and Austria.
• In 2017-2018 the top 10 Nationalities (out of 41) were: British (361), American (60), Australian (48), Chinese (39), German (25). French (21), South African (17), Irish (15), Canadian (14) and Swiss (13). Mauritius, Cayman Islands, Czech Republic and Uruguay were represented for the first time.
• Crew members in the last edition of the race represented 337 different occupations.
• Building & Engineering, Medical & Care, Science & Tech and Teaching were the top 4.

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