Clipper 2025-26 Race | Stage 1 Recap

Stage 1 : Battle over Biscay

Portsmouth, UK - Puerto Sherry, Spain

Stage 1: The Battle Over Biscay was a particularly gruelling nine-day race spanning 1,275 nautical miles from Portsmouth, UK, across the Bay of Biscay and onto Puerto Sherry, Spain.

Dubbed a ‘baptism of fire’ by Clipper Race Director Dale Smyth, the opening race certainly lived up to its name with headwinds dictating upwind conditions from the start, which served up big waves and sailing challenges for the crews as they raced through the English Channel.

As the fleet approached the Bay of Biscay, it was greeted by a big front bringing with it yet more heavy winds and big sea states on par with conditions you’d find in any ocean. This was abruptly followed by a patch of testing light wind conditions, before a more favourable downwind stretch on the approach to Puerto Sherry.

As tactical as it was intense, the opening Stage 1 of the Atlantic Trade Winds Leg was won by Team Scotland, with Team GOSH and Team Power of Seattle Sports leapfrogging the race winners to first and second overall leaderboard places after scooping extra bonus race points for the Scoring Gate and Ocean Sprint.

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Scoring Gate

As the fleet entered the Bay of Biscay, teams were faced with the second front of the race and some serious headwinds. Those that chose to stay in and not tack out to the west saw some of the toughest conditions of the race, and three teams pushed hard to get to the Scoring Gate first.

In third place was Team UNICEF, which took one bonus point. In second, Team GOSH, which took an additional two points. And in first, pushing really hard in the upwind conditions, was Team Power of Seattle Sports scooping three additional bonus race points!

Ocean Sprint

Often with the Ocean Sprint, the fleets differing arrival times at the starting point will mean they get different conditions. This can work favourably, sometimes, for teams at the back of the fleet as an opportunity to scoop a couple of bonus points and on this stage, that was the case. Teams that arrived first at the Ocean Sprint were faced with the third frontal system of the race, and they had some pretty hard conditions. The teams that benefitted were those who entered later on, when that had passed.

In third place was Team Washington, DC which completed the spring in 24 hours 32 minutes 50 seconds. The next fastest through the Ocean Sprint, by a significant amount, was Team Tongyeong in 21 hours, 8 minutes 10 seconds. Fastest across the Ocean Sprint was Team GOSH – with a bold move. Team GOSH knew that entering the Ocean Sprint at the wrong time was going to jeopardise progress, so they pushed hard to the west through the frontal system and eventually turned south and bombed across the Ocean Sprint – gaining overall leaderboard places at the same time. Team GOSH completed the Ocean Sprint in 18 hours 20 minutes 47seconds and took three bonus race points for doing so.

Stage 1 Race Standings

At the end of Stage 1, despite an outstanding race win by Team Scotland, accrued bonus race points through the Scoring Gate and Ocean Sprint meant Team GOSH leapfrogged to first place overall with 14 race points (nine points for second place, two for the Scoring Gate and three for the Ocean Sprint), followed by Power of Seattle Sports in second place with eleven points (eight race points plus three bonus race points for the Scoring Gate) and race winners Team Scotland clinched third place overall with ten points. It already looks set to be a race of many halves.