Dare To Lead scoops second place, adding third podium to its results haul

Arriving in Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club on a breezy Tuesday afternoon, Dare To Lead has taken second place on Race 5: Sta-Lok Endurance Test. The team crossed the Finish Line at 04:07:30 UTC, after another strong performance.

Image: Dare To Lead team

Having jumped around the leaderboard for the first half of this race, Dare To Lead climbed up to a front-running position as the fleet approached Tasmania, and manged to cling onto the podium spot until the end, jumping from third to second place as the team sailed around the southern tip of Australia’s island state.

Speaking the day before crossing the Finish Line, Dare To Lead First Mate, Charlie Warhurst said: “It’s been another amazing race, with so much happening. The start, with us all racing off downwind with kites up, feels like it could simultaneously be three days or three months ago.

“I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record when I say this at the end of every race but, the crew have been incredible once again. We really do feel extremely lucky to have such a dedicated group of people around our team and it is a very large factor in how well we’re doing.”

Image: Dare To Lead crosses the Finish Line

From the dock, on arrival into Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, Dare To Lead Skipper, Ryan Gibson said: “It was a tricky start. We knew it was going to be quite long because of the big high pressure so we had to go quite far south like we had on the previous race. We managed to get around and as soon as we got into the wind near the southern ice limit we had really good speed until the finish.

“We got quite lucky being in the front of the pack. Once we got round Tasmania, there was a lot of different weathers and then the current plays a big part. I’m glad to be here and an amazing result.”

Image: Skipper Ryan Gibson

Image: Retief Jordaan and Olwami Zungu

Olwami Zungu, the Dare To Lead Ambassador crew member on board reflected on the experience. Olwami, who hails from Durban, South Africa, joined the Clipper Race as part of the philanthropic Dare To Lead initiative, which gives young people from South Africa the opportunity to develop themselves through the power of ocean racing. He said: “It was really life-changing. Spending two weeks with these guys has been really amazing and I also got to learn a lot about myself. I honestly could not have asked for a better Christmas and New Year! I am really grateful.”

Image: Dare To Lead arrives in Newcastle, NSW

First Mate, Charlie Warhurst, added: “It is so nice to be here. Last night particularly was incredibly slow sailing, but we got here, and with a great result! Over this past leg, the crew seems to have just got it, and we were able to push it from the start.”

Talking about the varied conditions seen on race 5, Charlie continued: “For the first couple of hours of the race, all of the boats were so close together almost in a line and it was really close battling.

“Then later on we rounded Tasmania and was quite dark and ominous, but I don’t think we got the worst of it. And it seems a little bit sad as that’s the end of the Southern Indian Ocean for this circumnavigation!”

Megan Allpress, from the UK, who is racing around the world with her mum, Amanda Shehab, said: “I feel pretty amazing, it’s been a long and a short two weeks, but it’s been really enjoyable. It’s great to be on land again.

Amanda added: “We are really glad to be here. It was a nice one actually, because it varied with different weather. We were in the Tasman Sea, crossing the Bass Strait, which was like a millpond! We had a tough Christmas Eve, with a few things going wrong, but Christmas on deck was a lot of fun.”

Image: Celebratory fizz for Dare To Lead

The next teams to arrive will be UNICEF, Bekezela and Zhuhai due to be sailing over the Finish Line on Wednesday 3 January.