Crew Allocation – Live Streamed Today

The waiting is almost over for the crew members of the 2015-16 race who will today find out the identity of their skipper and fellow team mates at the highly anticipated Crew Allocation ceremony, taking place at Portsmouth Guildhall.

Race Director Justin Taylor says: “This is the biggest day for all the 2015-16 crew so far. Second only to the anticipation level of the actual Race Start date, today marks the beginning of their team journey.

“There is always a sense of anticipation, and nervous energy fills the air at Crew Allocation because today the whole race experience begins to feel incredibly real. Shortly after the teams are announced, they will all break off with their skipper and fellow crew members to get to know each other and start discussing their plan for the race – roles will be assigned and goals will be set.”

Around 500 crew members have travelled to Portsmouth from all over the UK and Europe, with some coming from as far afield as Dubai, Canada, China, India and South Africa. As a global race with international crew from over 40 countries, understandably not everyone can make it to Crew Allocation in the UK, so to ensure no one misses out on the news, we are running a live stream here.

In addition to the allocation of crew, announcements will also be made about Race Start and new Race Partners, so there is much for our 2015-16 crew to look forward to.

In this tenth edition Clipper Race, we welcome crew members from Lebanon, Latvia and Colombia, who are the first to represent their respective countries in the race.

Our first ever Lebanese crew member Moussa Tawil has travelled from Dubai to be here and is looking forward to his circumnavigation: “I'm super excited about the whole thing.Today is quite significant as I'll be sharing thoughts on tactics and finding out more about what role I'd like to play on board.

“I see this as an opportunity to test myself and think I'll manage well. I’d like to be part of a really fun crew. When I first signed up I didn't care much about winning, but the training and the exposure made think more about what needs to be done to win this race.”

The fleet are due to start their global challenge on August 30, when they will depart the UK for the 5630 mile journey to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the longest Race 1 we have had in our nineteen year history.

Click here to follow Crew Allocation live web stream which starts at 10:30am UK time.