Penalty Points announced for Leg 4

The Clipper Race Committee has released details of the penalty points allocated to the teams following the three races of the All-Australian Leg 4.

Penalty points are awarded because of damage sustained during racing and are designed to encourage crew to look after and maintain their yachts throughout the race.

The Clipper Race Committee keeps a running total of the costs of lost and damaged equipment and will impose one penalty point to the relevant team when the running total reaches £500 and an additional penalty point for every subsequent £500 of damage.

Each £500 of sail damage results in two penalty points. Each £500 of equipment damage results in one penalty point.

Race Director Justin Taylor explains the penalty points system: “Two running balances are kept during the entire race - one for sail damage and one for equipment damage - and these are reduced by £500 respectively as points are allocated. For example if a team does £840 of equipment damage then it is allocated one point and its equipment damage balance is reduced by £500 to £340.

“If on the subsequent leg it does a further £200 of equipment damage then its balance becomes £340 + £200 = £540. This will result in a further one point penalty and its balance will reduce to £40.”

The following penalty points have been allocated for Leg 4:

6 points: GREAT Britain, Qingdao (sail damage)
4 points: Mission Performance (sail and gear damage)
2 points: Garmin, IchorCoal (sail damage)
1 point: LMAX Exchange, Da Nang –Viet Nam, Visit Seattle, PSP Logistics (equipment damage)

To see how the points affect the Overall Race Standings click here.

To read a further explanation on penalty points see Sailing Decisions/Incidents section on our FAQs page.