Clipper Race fleet arrives in Hong Kong

GREAT Britain is expected to be the first boat to arrive at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club on Middle Island, Hong Kong, Saturday morning local time. Replacement fittings for the bottlescrews on the forestays are only expected to take a couple of hours each to complete, with the boats expected to be heading on their way to Qingdao soon after.

Race 9 will now be conducted on an elapsed time basis. This also avoids all boats being delayed longer than necessary by having to wait for the later arrivals.

There have also been quite a few questions about the reason for not awarding points for Race 9 so far. Much thought was given to the issue of awarding points so the entire fleet could be treated fairly. If points were awarded based on positions when the race was cancelled, this would leave the yachts that suffered forestay breakages disadvantaged. And it was a fault that could possibly have affected any boat.

Race Director Justin Taylor told the crews: “In light of the race you were having and the excellent tactics you employed this is of course disappointing but because not all yachts were racing at the time of the cancellation it is not fair to award any points.  When the first forestay failed the race was less than 24 hours old and to base a result on the positions at this time would also have been unfair as tactics and strategy had had no chance to play out sufficiently’.

Latest ETAs into Hong Kong are estimated as follows, with each boat returning to the race track within a few hours.

List of ETAs:

GREAT Britain - in Hong Kong

Invest Africa - in Hong Kong

Derry~Londonderry~Doire - in Hong Kong

Mission Performance - in Hong Kong 

Henri Lloyd - Saturday 1 March - am

Team GARMIN - Saturday 1 March - pm

Switzerland - Saturday 1 March - pm

Old Pulteney - Sunday 2 March - am

Qingdao - Sunday 2 March - am

PSP Logistics - Monday 3 March

Jamaica Get All Right - Monday 3 March

OneDLL - Monday 3 March

The fleet is now expected into Qingdao between 10-12 March with crew changeover on 11 March.