Cape Town is gearing up to welcome the ten yachts participating in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race.
The fleet of identical yachts, all of which are crewed by amateurs, are on the second leg of a 35 000 mile race around the world, which started in Hull, England on 13 September 2009. They left Rio de Janeiro on 27 October for Cape Town.
The first boats crossed the finish line under Table Mountain on Thursday 12 November, two days ahead of schedule, and the whole of the fleet should be in port by Monday 16 November. After a period of recovery at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, they will move to the V&A Waterfront on 20 November to ready themselves for the start of the third leg of the race to Geraldton, Western Australia on 22 November. Members of the public who would like to see the boats will find them in their moorings on the North Wharf, near the Aquarium. The Clipper team will be on hand at their exhibition stand in nearby Market Square to engage with locals and field queries.
Capetonians are expected to descend on the Waterfront in their thousands to welcome the yachts. Crew members, who number 17 per boat, come from all over the world and all walks of life. These are ordinary people who pay to participate in the race, either in its entirety, or for one or more legs. One such person is Capetonian Marlon Jones, crew member on board ‘Cork, Ireland’ which won this stage of the race. Twenty-year-old Marlon only started sailing five years ago and has shown a natural talent, rising through the ranks of the Izivunguvungu Sailing Academy to represent his country in the 2009 Laser SB3 World Championships, where he and his team finished second. Eero Lehtinen, who skippers ‘Team Finland’, the winner of the first two races in the Clipper 09-10 series and currently just behind ‘Cork, Ireland’ also lives in Cape Town, as does Pete Rollason, skipper of ‘California’.
The yachts are all stripped down 68-footers owned by Clipper Ventures and are sponsored by cities, regions and countries around the world. The ten are: ‘Hull and Humber’, ‘Qingdao’, ‘Uniquely Singapore’, ‘Cape Breton Island’, ‘Spirit of Australia’, California, ‘Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, ‘Jamaica Lightning Bolt, ‘Team Finland’ and ‘Cork, Ireland’. On their return to the Humber in July next year, the participants, who number 430, will have traversed all the world’s major oceans and visited ports on six continents.
Whilst in port, besides restocking on supplies, repairing damage, and welcoming new crew members on board, the crew will visit key attractions tourist attractions, including Table Mountain and Kirstenbosch. These visits will be televised as part of a reality series that will be broadcast around the world in June next year, providing invaluable exposure for the mother city. An estimated 212 million people around the globe are watching the race, or following the website, which is available in 179 countries. The publicity presents a unique opportunity to showcase Cape Town as a world class events and travel destination, which is all the more pertinent in the run up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
To follow the race into Cape Town visit the following website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/Follow/RaceViewer
Cape Town resident, Eero Lehtinen is skipper of Team Finland.
Eero has three children: Alex, 14, the top-ranked Optimist sailor in South Africa, Ed, 13, also a keen sailor, and Hanna, 9. For the last few years he has been combining sailing and management development, which have a natural synergy, and he is ready to apply that to his role as skipper in Clipper 09-10.
“My biggest achievement at the end of the race will be to have a happy crew and to still be receiving Christmas cards from them five years after the race has finished!” he says. “Team building, putting all the pieces together and the people in the right roles, keeping the wheels turning under pressure and tight schedules – they’re all going to be the most challenging parts of this race.”
Martin Pollack.
