McCarter's Clipper Crew Holds on to Lead in New York To Derry-Londonderry Leg

19th June 2014

#clipperrace – New wind has arrived with boat speeds picking up and the frontrunners extending their lead over the rest of the Clipper round the world race fleet by more than 200 miles.

The nine yachts that didn't manage to outrun the ridge of high pressure that engulfed them are now running with their spinnakers up with the new south easterly winds.

The front three yachts are beating upwind on a north easterly course after getting as far east as they could to escape the complicated weather systems.

Derry-Londonderry-Doire has held onto its lead and has also started the Ocean Sprint section of the course. It is followed by Jamaica Get All Right and GREAT Britain in third.

PSP Logistics came out of Stealth Mode where its position was hidden for 24 hours and has moved up to fifth place on the leaderboard. Skipper Chris Hollis said: "It was a pretty successful phase for us, pulling back a lot of miles and then some on the middle of the pack, which has now given us a fighting chance.

"The problem is we still need to make an easterly heading at some point. So a pretty big knock on the other tack is to be expected at some point. It is just a matter of when you do to minimise the damage of the negative tack.

"We are in company of Henri Lloyd and OneDLL who snuck over the horizon yesterday afternoon while we were on the edge of the southerly and dead zone. It is great to have them behind us for once. However, OneDLL having been wounded early on this race is on a storming comeback mission, and Henri Lloyd... Well, the leaders of the regatta are just about unstoppable at times."

Fleet tracker: yb.tl/clipper2013-race14

Published in Clipper Race

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

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.