Invest Africa arrives in Qingdao

Invest Africa was the fourth boat to arrive in China’s ‘Sailing City’ of Qingdao this morning after completing Race 9.1

On arrival into the Olympic Sailing Center, skipper Rich Gould was full of praise for his team after the technically challenging race: “It definitely felt like a slow boat to China. It was a long hard beat getting up here; obviously we ended up running up the strait to Taiwan as opposed to round the outside.

“This meant we had a different sea state maybe, not quite so big waves but still short and sharp, and we also wound up in an awful lot of traffic in there, so technically it was quite a difficult race.”

Invest Africa crossed the shortened course finish line at the Shanghai waypoint at 10:22:00 local time 02:22:00 UTC, making a total elapsed time of 6 days 1 hour 24 minutes 59 seconds; provisionally placing them in fifth place for this race.

“I was really pleased with the team; it was cold, rough and wet but the whole team kept pushing hard and it looks like we have put in a pretty respectable time,” added Rich Gould

For Sapinda Rainbow crew member Lazaros Tshikovhi from South Africa, Qingdao represents the end of his leg on the race which he found very challenging. He said:

“From the very beginning it was very hard, huge waves, raining, lightning, and the temperature. At the start it was very warm, and in the end it was freezing. So it was tough, always tough but very stimulating and rewarding.

“Personally it has shaped me in so many ways, firstly working with different people from different countries and all the new things I have seen and done.”

For latest provisional positions on the Clipper Race Viewer click here

The official verified results will be announced on Friday 14 March. ETAs into Qingdao will be updated here and to view the latest images from the Qingdao arrival click here