A terrible, sad day. At 0300 UTC we held a ceremony to join with Simon Speirs’ family at home, onboard CV30 (GREAT Britain) and his wider family across the Clipper Race fleet and staff, and paid our respects as he was buried at sea.
Nasdaq crew member, Andy Greenough, in particular knew Simon well from their time together on the Clipper Race Coxswain Certificate (CRCC) course, and told us all what a genuinely great guy he was.
It is devastating to lose one of our own, and our thoughts are with Simon's family and his many friends, especially Skipper Andy Burns and the GREAT Britain crew of which Simon was such an important part.
Everybody here onboard Nasdaq is safe and well, and our priority remains getting to Fremantle as safely and soon as possible. We are currently under reduced sail as repair work on our forestay continues, supported by the Clipper Race Maintenance team.
Cheers, Rob