New York Wins Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

The sailing crews of the 07-08 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race arrived back in Liverpool on Saturday, marking the end of their 35,000-mile circumnavigation. These amateur sailors (each boat having a professional skipper) battled it out around the world, sailing through calms and gales - enjoying all the pleasures, pains, mechanical breakdowns, and various character building experiences of a circumnavigation under sail. The ten yacht crews were thrilled to find race supporters, friends and family lining the banks of the Mersey to welcome them back home with a spectacular greeting at Albert Dock, putting a fine end to what for many has been a life-changing experience.

The yacht New York pulled into Liverpool first, securing their sixth first place win of their Clipper Race campaign and winning the Clipper Trophy. New York’s closest rival Hull & Humber, who were ahead of the rankings at race 13, lost all hope of winning the title as New York stretched out a small but significant lead in the quick race from Cork, Ireland to Liverpool.

Skipper of New York, Duggie Gillespie said at dockside, “It didn’t sink in last night. It was a relief last night just to get over the line. We’d been pushing behind Hull & Humber, working really hard – teamwork, teamwork, teamwork, all the time – and it was relief when we crossed the line. And it’s only now, when you come in here and there’s I don’t know how many thousands of people, you think well, we’ve actually done it. We’ve won the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.”

As the yacht New York crossed the finish line in Liverpool, Duggie let off two flares on the bow of the yacht in celebration. “That was a bit of fun,” he said, “But I was trying not to burn the sails! But it was great, in the Irish Sea, in the middle of nowhere, to know you’d not only won the leg, but won the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. And to win that leg was really just so sweet – it wasn’t expected. We didn’t need to. When we went round the last gate we had a team meeting and said right boys, here we are, we’re in the lead. We’ve got to the do the same thing to cover Hull & Humber as we’ve got to do to cover the fleet, so let’s really try and win this. So we made the decision then to really try to win and we just had to stop them from coming through. And we did!”

Crew member on the yacht New York, Gary Purdom from Bainbridge Island, Washington, US, said, “It’s spectacular in the sense that you think about doing something for 30 years and it really is a dream to be here at Albert Dock and not only doing it but doing it in style. The team was great, we were very competitive and fortunate to win the overall thing. That’s the icing on the cake when you have a dream just to circumnavigate, so I’m thrilled with every measure of the whole thing.”

Danny Watson and his Hull & Humber team won second place on the podium in the Clipper Race. Danny said, “It was a good race, we got another podium in Race 14. Obviously it wasn’t just quite enough but we gave it everything and it’s great to be here, second overall and the crew are made up. One of our key objectives was to strive for a podium position and to achieve a second place overall is a fantastic result.”

The only yacht led by a female skipper, Scottish entry Glasgow, won third place in the Clipper Race. Skipper Hannah Jennersaid, “It’s a bit surreal. I don’t think it’s really dawned on any of us what we just did and where we just came and it’s great to be here. In some ways it does feel like we’ve been away almost a year and in some ways it feels like we were just here last week when we first pulled up nervously but it’s really exciting. We’re very, very proud of third place. We’re delighted to have the boat not just on the podium for a single race for the first time in four campaigns, but overall, which is what we set out to achieve and we’ve achieved it.”

Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race began in Liverpool on the 16th of September 2007 and, over the last ten months, the teams have circumnavigated the globe, crossing the Atlantic three times, the Pacific once, sailed across the infamous Southern Ocean, and enjoyed stopovers on five continents.

On board each of the internationally-backed yachts was just one professional sailor, the skipper. The other crew members were all amateurs, in fact, nearly forty percent of them had no sailing experience when they embarked on their Clipper Race training ten months ago! Teachers, doctors, students, lawyers, secretaries and a taxi driver are among the crew members who have participated in this once in a lifetime adventure.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston told the crews, their families and friends upon their arrival “I said to you one thing before you set out. At the end of this race I wanted you to be able to say, that’s the best thing I’ve done with my life – so far. I hope this has been the experience you hoped it would be. I hope you’ll continue to sail. And I suppose for many of you there’s a small matter of work to get back to. I hope you’ll go back with very different attitudes. You’ll be able to say, ‘I’ve sailed around the world with Clipper now and I can probably do better than I did before.’ That’s what you’ve taught yourselves. You’ll have made friendships that will last for the rest of your lives. And above all, you’ve achieved one of the most difficult things in sport, and the highest achievement in sailing – a circumnavigation.”

Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race

TEAM and POINTS

1. New York 103.5
2. Hull & Humber 98
3. Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper 87
4. Qingdao 77.5
5. Liverpool 08 75.5
6. Durban 2010 and Beyond 70
7. westernaustralia2011 69
8. Uniquely Singapore 65
9. Nova Scotia 50.5
10. Jamaica 40.5

READ MORE ABOUT THE CLIPPER ROUND THE WORLD YACHT RACE and Robin Knox-Johnston

- YachtPals Crew exclusively for YachtPals.com

Video: On-board a sailing yacht in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.