Connemara Sailor Paddy Moran On Winning Yacht in 2023-2024 Clipper Round World Race

31st July 2024

Irish sailor Paddy Moran (on extreme left) on hand to pop the champagne while Sir Robin Knox Johnston prepares to hand skipper Bob Beggs the trophy for winning the 2023-2024 Clipper round world race on Ha Long Bay Vietnam

Irish sailor Paddy Moran was on board the winning yacht for a “nail-biting finish” to the 2023-2024 Clipper Round the World Race.

Moran is one of the crew of Ha Long Bay Vietnam which secured the overall win of the 2023-2024 race by one single point.

Moran was a participant in the circumnavigation involving over 40,000nm of racing, six ocean crossings, and fourteen races over an 11-month period.

(above and below) Paddy (centre) with his Ha Long Bay Vietnam team after they won first place overall in the 2023-2024 Clipper Round the World Race

Paddy (centre) with his Ha Long Bay Vietnam team after they won first place overall in the 2023-2024 Clipper Round the World Race

For the final race, just three points separated Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam and second-placed Perseverance, with third placed Zhuhai just four points behind Perseverance, making for an extremely tense finale.

The boat’s skipper Bob Beggs, who previously led a winning crew in the race in 2000, paid tribute to his “highly motivated, organised team” on Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam, which was “ably assisted by first mate Cameron McCracken”.

As Afloat has previously reported, Moran, who is a camera assistant on television productions, is originally from Dublin and moved to Ballyconneely in Connemara when he was eight.

He was one of a number of Irish participants, with some signed up for the entire round world route and others participating in one or several legs.

Initiated by Sir Robin Knox Johnston, the Clipper Race provides an opportunity to those with no previous sailing experience necessary to sign up for an intensive training programme and 40,000 nautical mile race around the world on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht.

Moran has described it as “one of the most remarkable challenges you could find at sea as a rank amateur”.

Published in Clipper Race, Connemara

Published in Clipper Race

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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.