Mayor proclaims 21 April ‘Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Day’ - Media

Mayor proclaims 21 April ‘Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Day’

22 April 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Santa Cruz, California, USA

21 April 2008 was proclaimed ‘Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Day’ by the Mayor of Santa Cruz, Ryan Coonerty, at a special Clipper 07-08 prize giving ceremony hosted by the Santa Cruz Yacht yesterday evening.  It is the first time the Clipper Race has visited the west coast of the US, and the Clipper fleet has been berthed in Santa Cruz Harbour since the first boat’s arrival on 16 April.

Joining the crews for an evening of presentations were SCYC members, friends, families and a number of race supporters, including representatives from the Crow’s Nest Restaurant who provided the food for the night.

The formal proceedings began with the presentation of a number of proclamations to the Clipper Race Team from local VIPs and organisations including The Mayor of Santa Cruz, Ryan Coonerty, and the Commadore of SCYC, Bret Grippenstraw.

As he handed over his proclamation the mayor said, “I, Ryan Coonerty, mayor of the city of Santa Cruz do herby proclaim April 21, 2008 as Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Day in the city of Santa Cruz and encourage all citizens to join me in honouring and welcoming the Clipper Round The World participants and wishing them fair ‘ winds for the remainder of their global voyage.”

To applause and cheers form the audience, the three podium placed teams, of the ten internationally-sponsored teams competing in Clipper 07-08, were invited up to receive their pennants.  The biggest cheer of the night went to the popular winners of Race 8, Uniquely Singapore, who were presented with their awards by Santa Cruz District County Supervisors Janet Beautz and Neal Coonerty.  “It’s been really exciting waiting for everyone to get here, it’s a very exciting event, “ said Janet Beautz.  “We’re very pleased that you came to Santa Cruz and we want to wish you all the best.” Neal Coonerty said, “Ditto from me.  You know you really are enriching our community by being by being part of it for a few days and we wish you well on your continuing journey from here.”

In addition to their yellow pennant the Keppel-sponsored Uniquely Singapore team was also awarded ‘The Wrong Way Race – Hawaii to Santa Cruz’ trophy.  Specially commissioned by the Crow’s Nest Restaurant, the award recognises the harder path the crews have taken across the Pacific Ocean.  For hundreds of years local sailors have traditionally raced from Santa Cruz to Hawaii in the direction of the prevailing winds.  Co-owner of the restaurant, Bob Mumsey, presented the award saying, “The winner of this inaugural race, Uniquely Singapore, has set a new record, and we hope that this racing achievement will be challenged in future years.”

Eight of the ten-strong fleet competing in the Clipper 07-08 Race are berthed in Santa Cruz Harbour with the final two boats, Durban 2010 and Beyond and westernaustralia2011.com expected to arrive this afternoon around 1600 hours The race restart is scheduled for 1300 hours on Thursday 24 April.  The restart promises to be an amazing spectacle with a start line 0.5 miles due south of Santa Cruz Harbour.

ENDS