GREAT Britain sets time to beat into Qingdao

GREAT Britain has become the first yacht to cross the finish line today in Race 9.1 of the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race. It is now preparing for its arrival into Qingdao, China on Monday morning local time when it will participate in a traditionally colourful welcome ceremony which is performed for each team.

The UK entry crossed the finish line, approximately 30 nautical miles offshore at 15:18 hours local (07:18 UTC) setting the bar high with a provisional elapsed time of 7 days 00 hours 35 minutes 41 seconds as the remainder of the twelve-strong Clipper Race fleet battles to beat the British entry’s time to claim valuable points for their team.

The yachts crossed the start line out of Hong Kong at different times following rigging repairs. Each yacht is individually timed with the quickest claiming first place and twelve points and then on a descending scale for slower times.

As each yacht finishes the leaders will emerge for this race and potentially change if later boats put in faster performances, although the final official positions will not be confirmed until all the times are verified on Thursday.

The Clipper Race Tracker leader board by Yellow Brick will be updated with the provisional elapsed times as each boat finishes.

Derry~Londonderry~Doire crossed the finish line at 22:41:59 local time (14:41:59 UTC) while Mission Performance finished shorlty after at  22:36:00 local time (14:36:00 UTC). Both teams are due to arrive in Qingdao Monday morning local time. 

Mission Performance  7d 13h 14m 0s 

Derry~Londonderry~Doire 7d 7h 57m 59s

The latest ETAs will be updated here