The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race was conceived in 1995 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and together with William Ward (CEO), founded Clipper Ventures, a company that would run the race. The race takes paying amateur crews on one or more legs of a circumnavigation of the globe in specially designed yachts owned by Clipper Ventures. Three different classes of yacht have been used throughout the race, the Clipper 60, Clipper 68 and Clipper 70s. The race ran every two years between 1996 and 2002, and then skipped a year, with subsequent races beginning in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Clipper 1996

Route

The first race took a route starting from Plymouth and then sailing to Madeira, Fort Lauderdale, Panama, Galapagos, Hawaii, Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seychelles, Durban, Cape Town, Salvador (Brazil), the Azores and back to Plymouth.

Results

+ Clipper '96 Results Position Boat Skipper Points 1 Ariel Ras Turner 24 2 Mermerus Jim Thom 47 3 Taeping Adrian Faiers 61 4 Chrysolite Colin de Mowbray 64 5 Blackadder Andrew Spedding 77 6 Serica Bluey Neale 82 7 Thermopylae Mervyn Wheatley 91 8 Antiope Charlie Osborne 93

The overall scores were calculated based on the number of points awarded for each race, with first place scoring one point, second scoring two points and so on.

Clipper 1998

Fleet

Seven boats raced, with Blackadder not competing.

Route

The route was largely the same as the '96 race, but called briefly at Nassau in the Bahamas before going to Marina Hemingway, five miles to the west of Havana, a direct course between the USA and Cuba being impossible.

Results

The race was won, convincingly, by Alex Thomson, who was the youngest skipper to win a round the world yacht race at just 24. Thomson used the win to springboard him into the international racing scene on his Open 60 Hugo Boss.

+ Clipper '98 Results Position Boat Skipper Points 1 Ariel Alex Thomson 24.5 2 Antiope Keith Harris 50 3 Chrysolite Tim Hedges 58.5 4 Mermerus Barney Sollars 67 5 Taeping Nick Fleming 71.5 6 Serica Rupert Dean 76 7 Thermopylae Malcolm Todd 82.5

The Times Clipper 2000 Race

This was the only race to have a title sponsor, with the UK daily broadsheet The Times sponsoring the race and trophy.

Fleet

All eight Clipper 60 yachts took part, and were renamed after cities in the UK (Portsmouth, Plymouth, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Jersey and Liverpool), with the crews, where possible, drawn from the city their boat was named for.

Route

The race started and finished in Portsmouth Harbour. The stop in the Azores was replaced by one in New York City and to compensate for the extra distance the Seychelles to Durban to Cape Town leg was reduced to Mauritius to Cape Town.

The race attempted to make it from Yokohama to Shanghai but a fierce storm east of Tokyo Bay in March 2001 caused damage to several of the boats and by the time they had returned to Japan for repair, the entry visas to China had lapsed. Instead, the fleet raced from Yokohama to Naha, the capital of the Japanese island, Okinawa.

Another diversion took place in May 2001 when mechanical problems to Bristol Clipper’s generator meant the fleet spent two days in Christmas Island and the crews got an unexpected Australian stamp in their passports.

In another modification to the Clipper ‘96 and Clipper ‘98 route, stops were included in Vilamoura (Portugal), Singapore and Mauritius with the penultimate race going from New York to the Channel Island port of St. Helier.

Results

The point scoring method was altered, with the races now scoring 8 points for a win, 7 for second and so on.

+ The Times Clipper 2000 Results Position Boat Skipper Points 1 Bristol Bob Beggs 97.4 2 Jersey Paul de la Haye 96 3 London Stuart Gibson 82 4 Liverpool Rupert Dean 77 5 Plymouth Matt Baker 75 6 Portsmouth Martin Clough 72 7 Leeds Simon Rowell 40 8 Glasgow Ed Green 38

Clipper 2002-03 Race

Fleet

This was to be the fourth and final circumnavigation for the Clipper 60 fleet. Three of the boats were renamed, and international cities were now added to the race, Hong Kong, Cape Town and New York.

Route

The start point was moved to Liverpool, and an estimated 40,000 spectators came to see the boats off despite a 24-hour delay due to storms in the Irish Sea. gusts turned the local waters into a boiling maelstrom and the start was postponed from the Sunday until the next day.

The race continued to go westwards. As in 2000, the attempt to race into Shanghai failed – this time thanks to the promised berthing facilities being withdrawn. Further along the route, the fleet was challenged by the SARS virus and the yachts were forced to find an alternative location close to Singapore. The popular Indonesian island of Batam provided the facilities and the stop proved so popular, it was a catalyst for Singapore to enter a yacht in the next running of the race.

Results

+ Clipper 2002 Results Position Boat Skipper Points 1 Jersey Johnathan Brockhouse / Ed Green / Simon Rowell 97.5 2 Bristol Richard Butler 95.5 3 Liverpool Adam Kyffin 74 4 Hong Kong Justin Taylor 71 5 Glasgow Rupert Parkhouse 65 6 London Rory Gillard 57.5 7 New York Sam Fuller / Ross Daniel 55 8 Cape Town Roger Steven-Jennings 30

Clipper 2005–06 Race

Fleet

The 2005 race was the first to feature the larger Clipper 68 yachts.

After the initial three international boats from the 2002 race, the race was made fully international, with boats sponsored by Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Qingdao, Durban, New York City, Singapore and Western Australia as well as the home teams of Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and Jersey.

Route

The 2005 race was the first to circumnavigate from east to west. The route was altered to take account of the faster boats, and to take in stopovers at many of the sponsoring cities. For the first time there was a leg across the Southern Ocean between Durban and Fremantle, and a leg across the North Pacific between Qingdao and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

The race schedule was significantly altered when Glasgow Clipper reported keel problems in the South China Sea, and diverted to Subic Bay in the Philippines, followed by the rest of the fleet that were showing symptoms, causing an enforced 6 week stopover. The revised schedule dropped the planned stopover in Yokohama from the route, and moved the Caribbean stopover from Curaçao to Jamaica.

Results

+ Clipper 05–06 Leg Results Start Liverpool Cascais Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Subic Bay Qingdao Victoria Panama Jamaica New York Jersey Holyhead End Cascais Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Subic Bay Qingdao Victoria Panama Jamaica New York Jersey Holyhead Liverpool CV1 Liverpool '08 1 2 Jt. 5 6 5 - 1 3 3 9 8 6 1 3 CV2 Glasgow: Scotland with Style 10 10 9 10 (-1) 9 - 8 8 (-2) 8 (-4) 10 4 9 7 9 CV3 Uniquely Singapore 4 6 Jt. 5. 9 6 - 4 (-1) 9 (-1) 1 4 1 7 4 6 CV4 westernaustralia.com 2 1 1 3 2 - 9 5 7 2 2 2 2 1 CV5 Jersey 9 7 10 5 8 - 10 (-2) 10 (-1) 10 (-4) 7 10 5 9 8 CV6 Durban 3 5 8 1 (-1) 1 - 3 2 (-1) 2 1 6 8 3 7 CV7 New York 6 4 2 7 3 - 6 7 (-1) 4 3 3 1 5 2 CV8 Qingdao 7 9 4 4 7 - 7 6 9 5 5 4 6 5 CV9 Victoria 8 8 (-1) 7 2 4 - 2 (-1) 1 6 8 7 3 10 4 CV10 Cardiff 5 3 (-1) 3 8 10 - 5 (-1) 4 5 6 9 10 8 10

Races score first = 10 points, second = 9 points, etc. However, Race 1 (Liverpool to Cascais) and Race 13 (Holyhead to Liverpool) were scored at half points. In addition, the race committee did sometimes apply points penalties, invariably for excessive sail damage. The penalty points are shown in brackets after the result.

The original race 6, from Singapore to Qingdao was abandoned when the fleet diverted to Subic, and no points were awarded.

Liverpool and Singapore were awarded a tie in Race 3, after Liverpool had a GPS failure, and could not confirm its finish time with sufficient accuracy to determine whether it was ahead or behind Singapore. 5.5 points were awarded to each boat.

+ Clipper 05–06 Results Position Boat Skipper Points 1 westernaustralia.com Dave Pryce/Mark Preedy 94.5 2 Durban Craig Miller 85.0 3 New York Joff Bailey 82.0 4 Liverpool '08 Tim McGee (Sam Fuller Jamaica->New York) 80.5 5 Uniquely Singapore Richard Falk 68.5 6 Victoria Ewan Hind 65.0 7 Qingdao Danny Watson 59.0 8 Cardiff Conor Fogherty (Mervyn Wheatley Victoria->Panama) 51.5 9 Jersey Mark Taylor/Simon Rowell/Richard Franklin/Mervyn Wheatley 25.5 10 Glasgow: Scotland with Style Graeme Johnston/Rory Gillard 23.5

Clipper 2007–08 Race

The Clipper 07–08 race started on 16 September 2007 in Liverpool.

Fleet

Once again, 10 Clipper 68s took part. There were some changes to the lineup with Victoria, Jersey and Cardiff replaced by Jamaica, Hull & Humber and Nova Scotia.

Route

The race had some changes compared to the 05–06 route. La Rochelle was the first stop, replacing Cascais, and the route for Leg 5 changed, with the race leaving Qingdao and heading to Santa Cruz, California via Hawaii, eliminating the stopovers in Yokohama and Victoria. The final leg also changed, with an extra stop in Halifax, and the final pitstop in Cork, rather than Jersey and then finished in Liverpool in July 2008.

Results

+ Clipper 07–08 Leg Results Start Liverpool La Rochelle Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Qingdao Hawaii Santa Cruz Panama Jamaica New York Halifax Cork End La Rochelle Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Qingdao Hawaii Santa Cruz Panama Jamaica New York Halifax Cork Liverpool CV1 Liverpool '08 2 4 2 9 2 8 7 7 6 5 3 9 4 5 CV2 Glasgow: Scotland with Style 3 2 3 6 6 3 3 5 5 3 5 2 7 6 CV4 Uniquely Singapore 7 7 8 7 7 7 4 1 7 6 7 8 5 2 CV3 westernaustralia2011.com 9 6 6 2 3 6 RTD DNC 9 10 2 1 9 9 CV5 Jamaica RTD 10 9 8 9 5 8 6 8 8 6 10 6 7 CV6 Durban 2010 and Beyond 5 1 7 1 5 2 6 DNC RTD 7 10 7 8 8 CV7 Hull & Humber 1 5 4* 4 4 4 1 4 1 1 8 4 3 3 CV8 Qingdao 6 8 5 3 10 10 5 8 2 4 4 3 2 4 CV9 New York 8 9 1 10 1 1 2 3 3 2 1 6 1 1 CV10 Nova Scotia 4 3 10 5 8 9 9 2 4 9 9 5 10 10

In Race 3, Hull and Humber crossed the line first, but had a four-hour penalty applied for using her motor during a casualty evacuation near the start of the race. As New York were six minutes behind, and Liverpool and Glasgow also finished within four hours, Hull and Humber dropped to fourth place in that race. In Race 8, Western Australia and Durban did not compete after losing their masts in Race 7. The race committee awarded them points for the race based on their average position in races 1–7. Durban got 7 points, Western Australia got 5.

RTD = Retired, DNC = Did not compete

+ Clipper 07–08 Results Position Boat Skipper Points 1 New York Jerry Crew/Duggie Gillespie 103.5 2 Hull & Humber Danny Watson 98.0 3 Glasgow: Scotland with Style Hannah Jenner 87.0 4 Qingdao Marcus Cholerton-Brown 77.5 5 Liverpool '08 Ben Galloway 75.5 6 Durban 2010 and Beyond Ricky Chalmers 70.0 7 Uniquely Singapore Mark Preedy 69.0 8 westernaustralia2011.com Martin Silk 65.0 9 Nova Scotia Rob McInally 50.5 10 Jamaica Simon Bradley 40.5

Where two teams are equal on points, their relative position is determined using the countback rule. That is, the team with the most first-place finishes is placed higher; if those are equal, look at second-place finishes, and so forth.

Points have been deducted for sail damage: Glasgow & Hull and Humber 4, Nova Scotia & Jamaica 3, Liverpool 1.

Race 1 was for half points.

Clipper 2009–10 Race

The Clipper 2009–10 race started from Kingston upon Hull on the Humber Estuary on 13 September 2009. The race was won by Spirit of Australia on 17 July 2010, when the yachts returned to Hull Marina for a gala celebration.

Fleet

The same fleet of Clipper 68s took part. The yachts were named Hull and Humber, Qingdao, Uniquely Singapore, Cape Breton Island, Spirit of Australia, California, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Jamaica Lightning Bolt, Team Finland and Cork.