Time Penalty For Sanya Serenity Coast

The Clipper Race Committee is announcing that CV27, Sanya Serenity Coast, has been given a six-hour time penalty as a result of breaching part of the Clipper Race Course Instructions for Race 6: The Wondrous Whitsundays Race.

Following on from the grounding incident involving CV24 in Race 3, exclusion zones have been written into the Course Instructions as an additional safety precaution.

In this current race there is a two-nautical mile exclusion zone from all coastline, islands and off lying hazards (awash or above the water at chart datum), and in addition, no Clipper Race yacht is to roam into an area of less than 30m deep (chart datum). This was very clearly briefed to all Skippers prior to departing from Hobart.

At 0500 UTC on 14 January, Sanya Serenity Coast inadvertently closed within two nautical miles of Waddy Point, Fraser Island. Although no advantage was sought or gained, this is a clear breach of the exclusion zone within the Race 6 Course Instructions.

The Clipper Race Committee has looked at all evidence and has been unanimous in its decision today to apply a six-hour time penalty, which is the minimum time penalty to be given in these circumstances. This penalty is added to the team’s elapsed time which will affect its overall finish position. The team’s bonus points gained during the Scoring Gate are not affected.

This decision has been communicated to Sanya Serenity Coast and the rest of the Clipper Race fleet.