The Clipper Fleet completes the 1200 nautical miles of Race 1, Leg 1 from the UK to Portimao in Portugal today and its going to be a very close finish!

For those not already addicted to the Race View (see Blog 75, The Race Viewer – and a health warning. This can be addictive!, published 2 Sept) then, as per the last update about 20 minutes ago, after 6 Days and 18 minutes racing,  Qingdao lead team UNICEF by 1.5 miles with just under 40 nautical miles left to race.

For those of you who wish, you can view the Race finish at

https://www.facebook.com/ClipperRaceLIVE/

The winning yacht in each individual race is awarded 11 points, second place gets 10 points and so on down to 1 point for eleventh place. The team with the highest cumulative points total at the end of the circumnavigation will win the Clipper Race trophy.

Simples …….. well not quite.

Within individual races, teams may gain additional points via tactical bonus point opportunities. Most races will have at least one “Scoring Gate.” A “Scoring Gate” is a virtual gate between two points along the race track that each team can chose whether to pass through or not. The first three teams to cross the gate gain extra points: 3 points for first, 2 points for second, and 1 point for third. The position of the “Scoring Gate” is usually some distance off the main rhumb line (the shortest distance between the race start and race finish ports), making the decision to go for it, or not, a tactical one. Do you increase the distance you sail to pick up extra points?

Each race is also likely to include at least one “Ocean Sprint.” An “Ocean Sprint” is a time trial between two pre-set lines of longitude or latitude. The fastest three teams crossing these lines, irrespective of overall race position, gain extra bonus points: 3 points for the quickest crossing, 2 points for the second quickest and one point for the third quickest. There is one “Scoring Gate” and one “Ocean Sprint” on the first race down to Portimao in Portugal.

Each team has the opportunity to play their Joker once during the circumnavigation, resulting in doubling their finishing points for that particular race only. Jokers must be declared before race start. Any bonus points won will not be doubled by the Joker, only race points. No teams have opted to play their Jokers on the current Leg 1, Race 1.

Penalty points may be applied by the Race Committee to any team for loss or damage to general equipment, damage to sails or infringement of any of the race rules. Penalty points will be calculated and announced/applied at the end of each of the 8 Legs of the Race.

And finally, Stealth Mode. This doesn’t attract points but each team is allowed to go into Stealth Mode. Each team has the opportunity for up to two 24 hour periods in each race to have their position hidden from other competitors (and the public). This could be useful to hide certain tactical/routing decisions particularly when out of sight/out of AIS range of other teams. Teams must give the Race HQ no less than 6 hours notice and Stealth Mode cannot be used within 250 nautical miles of the finish line of each individual race.

Right now I’m going into Stealth Mode as I’m off to Old Trafford in the morning to watch Day 1 of the Fourth Ashes Test Match against Australia 😉

BRILLIANT day in London yesterday as part of the UNICEF team on Race Start day. The atmosphere was fantastic and I will blog about it just as soon as I sort through the plethora of photos and screen shots, the latter taken by friends who were tuned-in and watching the live stream I advertised in the previous blog (Blog 74: The 2019-2020 Race Line Up and Starting Stats, published 1 September) on both sides of the Atlantic! As someone pithily commented, at least one of the TV cameramen clearly took a shine to Ruth…… more to follow on all that.

I ‘ve written before about ways to follow the race (see Blog 68: It’s Time ….. almost for me but definitely for YOU, published 26 July) and there is MORE……….   you can follow on:

Instagram:    #clipperRace

or the UNICEF team in particular #thebigblueclipperboat

or even ME #keith.winstanley.1232

Facebook:      Clipper Round The World Yacht Race

or UNICEF at Clipper 2019-20 Round the World Yacht Race – Unicef

Twitter:           @ClipperRace

                          @KeithWinstanle1 

BUT if you really want to follow the Race you simply have got to try out the official Race Viewer at  http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings. Having followed the Race Viewer myself during the previous edition I have to admit it can be addictive! During the 2017-2018 Race, Race Viewer received in excess of 4.35 million page views globally, from 162 different countries.

Race Viewer allows you to track all 11 yachts at any time you wish during all 40,000 nautical miles of the race. Bespoke to the Clipper Race, the web based Race Viewer has been tried and tested in excess of 120,000 nautical miles of ocean racing allowing Race Crew Supporters and everyone else to track their loved one’s and friends location 24 hours a day, over all 228 days of racing on both desktop and mobile devices.

For race followers interested in the finer tactical detail, a host of tools are available including brand new additions for the 2019-2020 Race. “We’ve developed a range of tools which give greater context to any tactical decisions made by each team. Weather layers can be activated to show current and forecast wind, swell, air pressure and temperature and even an enhanced rewind feature so followers can catch up on any racing action,” explains George Loader, Digital Marketing Officer at the Clipper Race.

Race Viewer 2019-2020 went “live” as the yachts left London yesterday before the Race Start proper off Southend Pier at 10am this morning. If you go to the official website at http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com you can find the Race Viewer on the drop down menu. Positions are updated once an hour but the yachts themselves only receive position updates relative to the other boats twice a day. Not so much bother when yachts are in sight of each other but its an eagerly awaited update in mid-ocean, as I expect to find out next month! !You can zoom in and zoom out on the map and if you hover your mouse/pointer over each coloured boat symbol you can identify the team, their SOG (speed over the ground), COG (Course over the ground) the DTF (distance to the finish of ther current race) and the time the position was last updated. Below the map you will see the Race Clock – currently in the ninth hour of the race – and the second place will list the current race standings including the distance each yacht is currently behind the leader. Accordsing to the 1800 update the yachts are currently off Ramsgate with Ha Long Bay, Vietnam in the lead. It’s a very close run thing though and only 3.38 nautical miles separates 1st from 11th …… but don’t take my word for it…. get on line and check it out!

Ruth and I are down at St Katherine’s Dock in London today for RACE START to wave off Team UNICEF and the other yachts at the start of the 2019-2020 edition of the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race.

20150830 Copyright onEdition 2015© Free for editorial use image, please credit: onEdition The Clipper 15-16 Race start in London, St Katharine’s Dock. Today the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race fleet, the world’s largest of matched ocean racing yachts will begin its 40,000-mile circumnavigation from London. The twelve 70-foot yachts paraded down the River Thames from Tower Bridge. If you require a higher resolution image or you have any other onEdition photographic enquiries, please contact onEdition on 0845 900 2 900 or email info@onEdition.com This image is copyright the onEdition 2015©. This image has been supplied by onEdition and must be credited onEdition. The author is asserting his full Moral rights in relation to the publication of this image. Rights for onward transmission of any image or file is not granted or implied. Changing or deleting Copyright information is illegal as specified in the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. If you are in any way unsure of your right to publish this image please contact onEdition on 0845 900 2 900 or email info@onEdition.com

Here is the starting line-up and the latest stats:

CV20.   Imagine Your Korea  “Race to Greatness Race to Win.”  61 Crew: 41 Men, 20 Women, 15 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest crew member 20. Oldest Crew 69.

CV21.  GoToBermuda  “Out Here Where You Belong.”  60 Crew: 43 Men, 17 Women, 10 nationalities, 8 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 18, Oldest Crew 72.

CV22.  Seattle  “The Oceans Are Our Future.”  57 Crew: 35 Men, 22 Women, 12 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 19, Oldest Crew 70.

CV23.  WTC Logistics  “To Dream Is To Do.”  66 Crew: 44 Men, 22 Women, 15 nationalies, 8 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 19, Oldest Crew 67.

CV25.  Punta del Este  “Punta Del Este: Land of Encounters.”  69 Crew: 46 Men, 23 Women, 19 nationalities, 8 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 20, Oldest Crew 76.

CV26.  Ha Long Bay, Vietnam  “Race To Greatness, Race To Win.”  68 Crew: 48 Men, 20 Women, 14 nationalities, 8 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 27, Oldest Crew 73.

CV27.  Dare To Lead  “WWW.DARETOLEAD.INFO

58 Crew: 42 Men, 16 Women, 9 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 18, Oldest Crew 74.

CV28.  Zhuhai  “Zhuhai – City of Islands.”  60 Crew: 41 Men, 19 Women, 9 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 18, Oldest Crew 66.

CV29.  Visit Sanya, China  “Sanya: China’s Tropical Paradise.”  60 Crew: 41 Men, 19 Women, 16 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 27, Oldest Crew 68.

CV30.  Qingdao  “China’s Sailing City.”  63 Crew: 42 Men, 21 Women, 9 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 23, Oldest Crew 72.

CV31.  Unicef  “Help Us Build A Safer World For Every Child.”  63 Crew: 43 Men, 20 Women, 14 nationalities, 9 Round The Worlders. Youngest Crew member 18, Oldest Crew 71.

If you want to watch Race Start LIVE then check out:

The Clipper Fanzone at St Katherine’s Dock, London, is now open………..

Regular readers will be aware that shortly after my Level 3 training I was “in the office” at the Harwich Haven Authority onboard the 210,000 ton container ship OOCL Indonesia (see Blog 58: My post-Level-3-training Day at the Office, published 16 April). On Tuesday of this week I was at it again but this time on something hundreds of times smaller, the Harwich Haven Authority’s own survey vessel, the Egret.

Accompanying the Harbourmaster, one of our legal advisors and two representatives from the Department for Transport, we passed some of the biggest deep water berths in the Authorities jurisdiction to visit possibly the smallest jetty right at the southern edges of our area, at Great Oakley, which included another of our areas of Special Scientific Interest. As the old adage goes, “there was lots of water, it was just very thinly spread!” and the visit was only possible on or around High Water. At Low water the berth, and much of the approach channel, dries out. It was a beautiful day with plenty of small craft around and even the seals took an interest in our visit.

Meanwhile, back in Portsmouth ….. on the same day and after an excellent Prep Week (more of that to follow) the Clipper Fleet slipped lines from Gosport to sail round to St Katherine’s Dock, London ahead of a whole series of events in the capital and race start on Sunday 1st September….. MUCH MORE to follow ……..

There are now 8 Days, 11 Hours, 42 Minutes and 10 Seconds until RACE START …….

The Countdown clock on the official clipper website tells me that, as I start writing this blog, there are 24 Days, 18 Hours, 23 Minutes and 10 Seconds to go until Race Start, but who’s counting?? Actually I AM. Although I don’t start racing on 1st September I will be there on the day and I still have much to do before starting out for South America in early October.

One of the crocodiles nearest the canoe is Prep Week and I will be joining some fellow UNICEF crew members down in Gosport this coming Saturday for the final Portsmouth based preparations before the Clipper fleet leaves Portsmouth on Tuesday 20th August for St Katherine’s Dock. An even nearer crocodile is that I am still a number of blogs “missing” from the list I produced in Blog 65 (Rather Like London Buses …. nothing for AGES and then more than you know what to do with! published 19 Jul 2019), most notably the UNICEF Team Building Weekend and Level 4 training, in order to get up to date prior to Prep Week and, just when I thought it was safe to start typing, along comes another Clipper announcement.

You will recall that at the end of the blog before last (Blog 69: Clipper yacht branding – almost complete, published 29 Jul 2019)  I mentioned that there were, at the time of writing, two “un-named” yachts in the 2019-2020 edition. Well not anymore. This week has seen the announcement that Quang Ninh Province in northeast Vietnam has signed a two edition deal with the Clipper Race that will see a team entry this year followed by an appearance as a Host Port Partner in 2021-2022. The Quang Ninh Province is home to the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site Ha Long Bay and this years team entry will be called “Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.”

Recognised twice as a World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO, Ha Long Bay is a stunning destination and, unsurprisingly, northern Vietnam’s number one tourism hub. The name “Ha Long” means “descending dragons” and local legend has it that after fighting invaders, Mother Dragon and her children decided to stay in the mortal world forever and turned into thousands of islands scattered on the Bay to protect this sacred land. So “team Josh” becomes Team “Ha Long Bay Vietnam.”

Lindy Scarborough, one of our growing number of UNICEF crew supporters and wife of fellow team mate Graham Scarborough (Leg 7),  is a professional jeweller and has been busy in her workshop (now known as the Boat Yard) designing and making solid silver stylised designer Clipper necklaces and earrings. Initially Lindy made one for herself to wear at the Crew Allocation Day back in May but they have attracted such widespread interest that, after consultation with UNICEF and Clipper Ventures plc, Lindy has stepped up production.

Each piece is handmade in solid sterling silver. There are two sizes of necklace available. Medium with an 18 inch chain at £89.00 and Large (a statement piece) with a 28 inch chain at £139.00 – both prices are plus special delivery p&p charged at cost. 20% of any sales will be given to the team UNICEF charity fundraising effort.

if you are interested in either the necklaces or the earrings then please e-mail Lindy direct at mel@msj.org.uk (she knows I am posting this) and before you ask, of course I’m placing an order!

Zhuhai was the first Clipper 2019-2020 yacht to be branded back in March (See Blog 51: Clipper 2019-2020 First Boat Branding, published 8 March 2019) and now as the Countdown Clock on the official Race website ticks down through 33 Days, 17 Hours, 37 Minutes and 15 Seconds to Race Start, pretty much all the team sponsor and yacht brandings are now complete.

UNICEF, Visit Sanya, WTC Logistics, Dare To Lead, Zhuhai, Punta del Este, Seattle Qingdao and Go Bermuda. Only two more to be announced. Watch this space.

its time NOW, if you haven’t already done so, to sign up as a Clipper 2019-2020 Race Crew Supporter…….

……. and most importantly this can be done from the comfort of your own armchair, it doesn’t involve strange MUSTO outfits, you might NEVER get cold and wet AND ITS FREE.

You can sign up to join the Race Crew Supporters network to find more about the Race at http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/racecrewsupporters  Scroll down to the bottom of the page, complete the form, tick the box to receive the Crew Supports Newsletter and its “job done”. Painless. And while you are on the official website check out the UNICEF team page and links to the official Facebook page and Twitter feeds. Failing that you could always ask me to send you a postcard or a message in a bottle 😉