Welcome to China- Zhuhai receives heroes homecoming! 

Race 8: Sprint to the City of a Hundred Islands saw the Zhuhai team proudly sail into its home port for the first ever time on the Clipper Race. The team took fifth place in Race 8and despite a challenging and frustrating sprint up from Vietnam, arrived at its Host Port in Zhuhai like heroes, with high spirits and ready to celebrate.

Zhuhai led a Parade of Sail of all eleven Clipper Race yachts into the Jizhou Zhuhai marina, where the pontoon was lined with lion dancers, drummers and local dignitaries. Representatives from Jizhou Zhuhai and Huafa Group Leaders of the Joint Inspection Unit greeted Zhuhai with garlands of flowers and a champagne spray to celebrate the homecoming.

Image: Zhuhai leading the fleet into Zhuhai Jiuzhou Marina

Team and Host Port Partner Jizhou Zhuhai said: “Welcome home, Zhuhai! Thank you for your bravery and endeavour, giving us endless pride and excitement! A glorious return to your home port, demonstrating your tenacity and perseverance, and bringing endless brilliance to Zhuhai! You are our prides; Zhuhai is proud for you!”

Skipper James Finney said after arriving at his yacht’s home port: “It’s unbelievable. I knew it was going to be a huge welcome, but I wasn’t expecting that. It was awesome, overwhelming really! It’s been a long time coming.

“Lots of the previous Zhuhai Ambassadors came out on one of the Clipper 12s to welcome us in, and I think I’ll see some of the Ambassadors from my race whilst I’m here which will be really cool.”

Zhuhai maintained a strong lead for the opening days of Race 8, with a podium place looking promising. However, tactics were everything as the teams rounded Hainan Island, where wind shadows needed to be tactfully navigated, and unfortunately a wrong decision caused the team to shoot down the leader board to ninth. However, through grit and determination, the team pushed hard to climb back up the race standings, landing a very respectable fifth place overall.

Image: Zhuhai team celebrate with Champagne

On the result Zhuhai Skipper James Finney said: “It’s such a shame! It just didn’t quite go our way. A couple of bad decisions cost us the lead. But I’m super proud of the way we fought back, and we managed to claw our way back to fifth place. It doesn’t always go your way, but it was a fantastic race.

Qiang Zheng, known as Frank, the round the world Ambassador on Zhuhai was over the moon to arrive home in China. He said: “We are finally here in Zhuhai, our home port! Everything feels so unreal and so exciting. We’ve sailed halfway around the world, 25,000nm and five legs, and we have finally made it here. I can’t wait to show my crew and people from the Clipper Race all the great things about Zhuhai: the food, the lovely people, we will explore tomorrow!

“We were the leading boat for the first half of the race but fell back on the second half. But you know, it’s a race, so you’re not going to always win. It’s just so exciting to be here and that’s all that matters.

Image: Zhuhai coming home into Zhuhai Jiuzhou Marina

The Zhuhai team will now have the stopover to rest, prepare for the next race and explore the City of a Hundred Islands and local area ahead of the next race to Qingdao in China.