GREAT Britain takes third win in Clipper Race

GREAT Britain has been confirmed in first place of Race 9.1 to China’s ‘Sailing City’ of Qingdao, its third win in the 2013-14 edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

The stage from Singapore had to be restarted from Hong Kong, following an unscheduled pit stop for rigging repairs, run on an elapsed time basis as the boats restarted individually as soon as the work was completed.

The results have now been verified and GREAT Britain achieved an impressive elapsed time of 5 days 6 hours 26 minutes. Derry~Londonderry~Doire and OneDLL took second and third places with elapsed times of 5 days 8 hours 30 minutes and 5 days 16 hours 54 minutes 14 seconds respectively.

The teams were awarded their podium pennants in an impressive prizegiving and welcome ceremony today hosted by Qingdao, ‘China’s Sailing City.’

Skipper of GREAT Britain, Simon Talbot was confident in his performance, but also wary of current overall leaders OneDLL who at one stage looked set to challenge for the all-important 12 points.

“I knew we had achieved a competitive elapsed time when we arrived, and I was confident that we either had first or second place,” said GREAT Britain skipper Simon Talbot.  “I can’t tell you how great it feels to wins this race. It was full of never ending challenges, but the team worked so hard and really pulled together.

 “I’m so proud of the crew, all our hard work has paid off and to win 12 points is fantastic,” added Simon.

Race founder and Chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston told the crew at the prizegiving: “All the teams have had a challenging and, at times, frustrating race from Singapore. The final beat into Qingdao has lived up to its reputation for hard sailing in plummeting temperatures.

“So congratulations to all the skippers and crew, you deserve the huge welcome Qingdao is giving you together with the accolade of conquering warriors of the sea.”

Adding these latest points to the overall leader board, while also applying penalty points for sail and equipment damage sustained in Leg 4 around Australia, has actually preserved the relative positions of the fleet in the updated race standings.

The podium has OneDLL is in first place with a net total of 83 points; Henri Lloyd is second with 82.9 points and Derry~Londonderry~Doire is third with 78 points.

GREAT Britain sits fourth with 74 points; Switzerland fifth with 66 points and stopover host entry Qingdao is sixth with 62 points.

The full race standings for all teams, including any Leg 4 penalty points, have been updated and can be viewed HERE 

One final yacht, PSP Logistics, is still making its way into Qingdao after retiring (receiving one point) from Race 9.1 and is expected to arrive within the next twelve hours.