Voting opens for the Henri Lloyd Clipper 2013-14 Race Seamanship Award

It’s the accolade every team competing in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race will be hoping to win, as nominations for the Henri Lloyd Clipper Race Seamanship Award open today.

To honour Henri Lloyd’s long term partnership with the Clipper Race and in recognition of the extreme challenges faced by the teams and crew, Henri Lloyd will once again bestow the crew member or team who is deemed to have demonstrated the highest levels of seamanship and safety the coveted Henri Lloyd Clipper Race Seamanship Award.

Clipper Race Chairman and Founder, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said: “I’m extremely pleased that our longstanding sponsor Henri Lloyd is presenting this award with focus on good seamanship for a second race. 

“Preserving equipment is a vital part of racing a yacht. All our Clipper Round the World Yacht Race crew members are worthy candidates for this prize, so I wish them all the best of luck.”

The rules of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race are designed to encourage the crews to sail their yachts whilst promoting high levels of seamanship with safety at the forefront. Ocean racing is an extreme sport and inevitably incidents and damage to the yachts take place because of heavy sea states and strong wind conditions. 

The Henri Lloyd Clipper Race Seamanship Award has been created to recognise the lengths a crew member or team will go to help each other and/or preserve the equipment on board. The judging panel will include race founder; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Henri Lloyd Joint CEO Paul Strzelecki. The award presentation will take place at the London Race Finish prize giving on Saturday 12 July.

Paul Strzelecki, Joint CEO for Henri Lloyd, added: “We are very proud of our longstanding partnership with the Clipper Round the World Race and delighted to be able to show our support to the race crews through the Henri Lloyd Clipper Race Seamanship Award.”

To nominate please submit no more than 250 words stating why you are nominating the person or team for this award. All nominations should be sent to [email protected]  by Sunday 22 June at 1800 BST.

A shortlist of ten nominations will then be featured on the Henri Lloyd Facebook page from Monday 0900 BST on 30 June until 1800 Sunday 6 July. Friends of the Henri Lloyd Marine page are able to ‘Like’ their favourite nomination and the total ‘Likes’ accrued for each by 1800 on Sunday 6 July will be taken into account by the Judging Panel in their final decision.  

The winner will receive a small trophy and the winner’s name will be engraved on the base of the original trophy. They also win £250 in Henri Lloyd vouchers.