Irish Clipper Yacht Derry–Londonderry–Doire Arrives in New York

2nd June 2014

#clipperroundtheworldrace – Derry~Londonderry~Doire arrived in New York, the city that never sleeps in the early hours of this morning lit up by world famous city skyline. The Northern Irish team put on a competitive performance to claim fifth place in Race 13, the Grange Hotels Trophy, just one week ahead of the highly anticipated Race 14 to Derry-Londonderry.

After arriving in New York skipper, Sean McCarter was quick to heap praise on his team as they now lay just 10 points behind third placed OneDLL on the overall leaderboard. Sean commented:

"It's been an amazingly close race which gets even closer as it goes on, we are all so evenly matched at the moment so there is no room for error. We had a good race. Leaving Jamaica we came quite quickly out of the blocks and made it past the first mark quite quickly in second or third position, then we had a good run up and we decided to break a little bit from the pack. That dropped us back a little bit. Our plan was to drop out of the Gulf Stream to catch them up and we were looking good to do that for a while but we dropped out at a bad time.

Currently in a respectable fourth place on the overall leaderboard with 106 points, Sean knows that with so many points still up for grabs a podium position is still in sight for the team. With the pressure of arriving into his home port and securing a podium, Sean remains calm and unfazed:

"There are still a lot of points on the board and we have seen how Henri Lloyd came in on this one winning the extra points. If you can manage that on the next race them you can expect to jump a position or two on the leaderboard, so I can imagine there will be a lot of teams looking to do that."

The fleet is expected to arrive into Derry-Londonderry between Saturday 21 -23 June, where a week long LegendDerry Maritime Festival has been organised from 21-29 June. For more information on the programme - which includes a concert by the Grammy award-winning Beach Boys - visit www.legenderrymaritimefestival.com

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About the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is undoubtedly one of the greatest ocean adventures on the planet, also regarded as one of its toughest endurance challenges. Taking almost a year to complete, it consists of eleven teams competing against each other on the world’s largest matched fleet of 70-foot ocean racing yachts.

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; it is the only event of its kind for amateur sailors. Around 40 per cent of crew are novices and have never sailed before starting a comprehensive training programme ahead of their adventure.

This unique challenge brings together everyone from chief executives to train drivers, nurses and firefighters, farmers, airline pilots and students, from age 18 upwards, to take on Mother Nature’s toughest and most remote conditions. There is no upper age limit, the oldest competitor to date is 76.

Now in its twelfth edition, the Clipper 2019-20 Race started from London, UK, on 02 September 2019.