Irish-Skippered Yacht Wins Sydney Hobart Clipper Class After Redress

30th December 2017

Credit: Clipper Ventures

#ClipperRace - After being last into Sydney in the fourth leg of the Clipper Race, HotelPlanner.com has been declared the winner of this week’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Clipper 70 Class after being granted a 120 minute redress for going to the assistance of a fellow competitor shortly after race start.

At approximately 5pm local time (6am Irish time/UTC) on Tuesday 26 December, the Conall Morrison-skippered yacht went to the assistance of another boat after being informed of a man overboard.

The HotelPlanner.com crew successfully retrieved the man in the water within 15 minutes — and after the onboard medical assistant determined he hadn’t suffered any injury, the crew member was returned to his vessel and both boats resumed racing.

Despite the time lost, HotelPlanner.com managed to catch the rest of the Clipper Race fleet, with all 11 yachts crossing the finish line within 90 minutes of each other yesterday (Friday 29 December).

Clipper Race director Mark Light said: “Skipper Conall Morrison and his HotelPlanner.com team did extremely well and acted very quickly under the circumstances.

“Going to the assistance of a fellow sailor or competitor is absolutely the correct thing to do and the team handled everything superbly well which clearly indicates how well the they were trained and led by their Skipper. The Clipper Race training has once again paid dividends and shows the merits of such an extensive programme.

“As such, the redress award for HotelPlanner.com is fully justified and my congratulations go to Conall and his team for their efforts and first place in the Clipper 70 class.”

The award of redress for HotelPlanner.com was decided by an international jury hearing, arranged by the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Organising Committee at 10am local time on Saturday 30 December.

The decision means Sanya Serenity Coast, which took line honours for the Clipper 70 class, will take second place while Garmin places third.

As the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race doubles as Race 5 of the 2017-18 Clipper Race, HotelPlanner.com will now receive 12 points for the win, with Sanya Serenity Coast and Garmin to receive 11 and 10 points respectively.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Howth Yacht Club’s Gordon Maguire and his Ichi Ban crew were conformed as overall winners of this year’s Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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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.