Clipper Race Starts Countdown To Setting Sail From London

Almost 700 adventurers will be taking part in the Clipper 2019-20 Race setting off from London on 1 September 1, 2019.

This will only be the third time in twelve editions that the race has launched in the British capital. St. Katharine Docks, nestled close to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, will provide a great backdrop for the start of  the round-the-world event.

Crews from 44 different countries will  test themselves to the limit on board the world’s largest matched fleet of 70-foot ocean racing yachts.

The teams will race from the UK, across the Atlantic to South America, including the city of Punta del Este; the South Atlantic to Cape Town, South Africa; across the Southern Ocean’s Roaring Forties to Fremantle, Western Australia; around to the Whitsundays on the east coast of Australia, back into the Northern Hemisphere to China where teams will race to Qingdao, via Sanya and Zhuhai; across the North Pacific to the West Coast USA, then to East Coast USA via the Panama Canal; and then it’s a final Atlantic crossing; before arriving back to the UK.

The 40,000 nautical mile Clipper Race is unique in that it trains ordinary people to race across oceans and this year crew have professions such as hairdresser, roofer, chiropractor and corporate CEO.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Clipper Race Chairman and Founder, who recently celebrated his 50th anniversary of being the first person to sail around the world, non-stop, told crews who have signed up for this epic challenge: “I want you to be able to say this is the best thing that you have done with your life – so far. Then I will know we have broadened your horizons. Don’t paint your life in pastel colours. You only have one life, make it bright.”