Emotion as crews finally finish Clipper Race
A jubilant 180 crew arrived back in London at the end of the Clipper Race, for a parade of sail along the River Thames and a welcome ceremony at Royal Docks, with a huge crowd of family, friends, partners and spectators creating a memorable atmosphere. This edition of the race started in 2019 and was suspended in March 2020 as the pandemic struck, with crews flying home from Subic Bay in the Philippines. It restarted, after a week of crew re-training, in February 2022, with the remaining legs from the Philippines across the north Pacific to Seattle, then down the west US coast to Panama, before transitting the Panama Canal and racing on to Bermuda, New York, Derry-Londonderry and the final sprint back to London.
The race overall was won by Qingdao , skippered by Chris Brooks and representing the Chinese city of the same name. Crew member Jody, from Michigan, USA, who completed the circumnavigation on board Qingdao said: “It’s been an incredible lifetime achievement. An amazing thing to experience”.
Visit clipperroundtheworld.com to sign up for the next race, dates TBA.
Celebrating Uffa
Vintage wooden dinghies and yachts gathered in Cowes in August 2022 to celebrate the life and work of one of Cowes’ most famous sons, Uffa Fox. More than 80 Fox-designed boats, including the 22 square metre, the Flying Fifteen and the 1934 frostbite dinghy, with bamboo mast,, which lost her mast on Saturday. Among many other boats of note were Patricia Knight’s International 14,, in which Uffa won his second Prince of Wales Cup, and Alastair Vine’s Firefly,, which was the GB entry in the singlehanded dinghy class in the 1948 London Olympics sailed at Torquay. Racing took place on Friday and Saturday, with 65 boats starting and a National 18 a Firefly winning the two classes.
