These are the people you will come into contact with most as you get ready to compete in the challenge of a lifetime and while you are racing around the world.
Sir Robin is the first person to sail solo and non-stop around the world
Race Chairman: Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
Sir Robin is Executive Chairman and founder Director of the company. Sir Robin has been involved in sailing all his life and holds a Department of Transport Master’s Certificate. He is the first person to sail solo and non-stop around the world and has also set the record for the fastest circumnavigation with Sir Peter Blake. In 2007 he completed his second solo circumnavigation when he competed in the VELUX 5 OCEANS race. Sir Robin has considerable experience of the administration of round the world races having served on the Whitbread Race committee from 1990 to 1994 and having organised the BOC Challenge Round the World Race in 1982 and 1986. He has been named RYA/YJA Yachtsman of the Year an unprecedented three times.
Race Director: Jonathan Bailey
Jonathan (Joff) Bailey joined Clipper Ventures Plc in May 2007. As an electronics engineer he worked in the defence industry for 18 years before turning his life-long hobby into a full time sailing career. An accomplished racer and fully endorsed RYA Instructor, Joff skippered New York Clipper to third place in Clipper 05-06 and then worked on private yachts before coming back to the Clipper fold as Race Director.
Race Manager: Lizzie Nicholas
Lizzie joined Clipper Ventures in June 2007. Lizzie took a career break from business consulting in London to take part in the Clipper 05-06 Race on New York Clipper and never looked back. On her return she set about becoming a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster before working on the VELUX 5 OCEANS race, scrutineering the race yachts, and corporate sailing. She worked on private yachts before the lure of the Clipper Race once again became too strong.
Race Office Assistant: Rob Carter
Rob graduated with a degree in Sustainable Design and Environmental Management from Portsmouth University. He worked as a recruitment officer for the Ministry of Defence before joining the Clipper maintenance team in January 2007 for the major refit in preparation for the Clipper 07-08 Race. He joined the Race Team in April 2007.
Crew Manager: Carol Blyth
Carol has worked with Clipper since 2001. She has sailed from childhood and has a passion for the sport. Her first big boat experience came when she was offered a corporate day’s sailing on a Challenge 67. She enjoyed it so much she decided to get involved in the industry and jumped at the chance to apply for the position of Crew Coordinator for the Clipper Race. Now, as Crew Manager, Carol looks after the day-to-day running of the Crew Support team but would love to do a leg of the race herself – either through the Panama Canal or across the Atlantic racing back home.
Crew Recruitment Manager: David Cusworth
David completed the Clipper 2002 Race on New York. Having initially been accepted for a single leg, he realised during Part A training that this was far too much fun to only do part of it. The race changed his life. After serving in the Royal Navy for seven years he set up and ran a management training company in Leeds but left that to go back to sea with the Clipper Race. On his return he completed his Yachtmaster qualifications and worked as a first mate and skipper in the Mediterranean and the Solent. After a very short spell in London, where he was reminded of the reasons he went to sea in the first place, he returned to Clipper to help others fulfil their dreams of sailing around the world.
Crew Support: Vikki Gillard
Vikki joined Clipper Ventures Plc in February 2007 but had been following the Clipper Races for many years as friends and family competed in races or skippered yachts. She got into sailing 13 years ago when she was working in the office of a sailing school and had the opportunity to complete some RYA qualifications. After selling their own catamaran she and her husband had been working on private yachts for four years, sailing around the world in beautiful locations including Australasia, Singapore and the Galapagos.
Maintenance Manager: Justin Haller
Justin (Jay) grew up in Port Alfred, South Africa and, after leaving school and completing National Service in the Medical Corps, he moved to Cape Town to complete a three-year apprenticeship with Caterpillar Earthmoving. After qualifying he joined SANAE (South African National Antarctic Expeditions) and worked in Antarctica as part of a team building the new research base. He moved to the UK in 1994 and spent six years working as an engineer with Sunsail in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. With the same company he moved back to the UK to work on Americas Cup yachts before joining Clipper Ventures as Maintenance Manager in 2002.
Maintenance Team: Austin Brierley
After working as a CAD/CAM engineer in printed circuit board manufacturing for use in the defence and avionics industry, Austin decided he needed a career change. He retrained as a yacht engineer at UKSA, moved with his family to the Isle of Wight and has never looked back. He is the electronics specialist in the maintenance team. Austin can’t get enough of boats – his hobbies include radio controlled yachts.
Maintenance Team: Greg North
On Valentine’s Day 2005 Greg’s love affair with the Clipper Race began when he joined the maintenance team on 14 February. Starting out in general maintenance he has become a rig specialist, travelling to the stopovers with the rest of the maintenance team. Before Clipper Greg worked for an archery specialist while studying for a degree in sustainable design.
Communications Manager: Heather Ewing
Heather has been with Clipper Ventures Plc since February 2007 having spent 20 years working in the radio industry, both in the BBC and private sectors. She has worked all over the UK as a journalist, newsreader and presenter, as well as spending some time as a voiceover artist.
Communications Manager: Zoe Williamson
Before joining Clipper in January 2007 Zoe worked in televisions research and production at the BBC and in the communications department of the European Space Agency. She took part in the Clipper 05-06 Race as a round the world crew member on Liverpool 08.
Director of Marketing and Communications: Ian Dickens
With more than 25 years’ experience as Marketing Director at Olympus UK and in the radio industry, Ian joined Clipper Ventures in 2008 to oversee marketing, media and city sponsorship. He competed as a round the world crew member on London Clipper in the Times Clipper 2000 Race and wrote a book, Sea Change, about his experiences.
City Manager: Katie Beney
Katie has worked in the sailing industry since graduating from Edinburgh University in 1996. The diversity of her roles has taken her from developing a new watersports holiday product for Thomas Cook to creating and activating a global sponsorship strategy for a leading whisky brand. Katie is a keen sailor in her spare time and races on a J92. She joined the Clipper team in February 2008.
City Manager: Victoria Calder
After working in Southern Japan for a couple of years, Victoria returned to the UK where she managed PR and sponsorship campaigns for some of the Britain’s biggest brands. It was during this period that she met Sir Robin Knox-Johnston when he was competing in the VELUX 5 OCEANS. Out in Bilbao she caught the Clipper bug, joining the team for the 07-08 Race.
Chief Executive: William Ward
William joined Clipper Ventures early in 1996, joining forces with Sir Robin in the initial stages of production of the original fleet of Clipper 60s. He has brought to Clipper a commercial background gained in the property investment arena where he successfully ran a number of different companies. William has taken the Clipper Race to a global audience by developing the international city sponsorship model that has proved so successful.