Race 1 of the 2023-24 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race has finished with Perseverance in 5 days and 21 hours to take the win on September 9 in Puerto Sherry, Spain.

After the start from Portsmouth, UK on September 3, the conditions for the 1200nm course offered a good warm-up for the eleven teams, with Perseverance joined on the podium by Yacht Club Punta del Este in second and UNICEF in third.

“We had a fantastic welcome into Puerto Sherry with some local sherry and some flowers,” said Perseverance Skipper Ineke van der Weijden. “It’s beautiful weather and we came in first! I think we are feeling a little shellshocked but super happy!

“The crew has been fantastic. We had a rough day or two with seasickness and getting used to life on the boat, so some lows and some highs but the highs outweighed the lows. It was fantastic and we had a great time.

“When you are in first place, it definitely creates a bond and motivation as well. For the crew, it is just amazing because their whole dream of doing this and racing is paying off, and they just get on so well too.”

“After making a fantastic move to the north early on day two, in the English Channel, it created a superb wind angle and never looked back,” observed Clipper Race Director Mark Light on Perseverance. “A decisive move early in the race and they pretty much led the fleet from that point onwards driving forwards to pull away at every opportunity.”

Perseverance finished Race 1 in first place, however at this stage are second on the leaderboard behind Yacht Club Punta del Este. The team chose to gain three extra points by going for the Scoring Gate and were able to claw back some standings and finish Race 1 in second position. Thanks to the bonus points, YCPE are top of the leaderboard going into the second race.

The next race extends to Punta Del Este, Uruguay.

Divided into eight legs, and 14 individual races, the 2023-24 edition will take the following route:
Leg 1– Portsmouth, UK – Puerto Sherry, Spain – Punta Del Este, Uruguay
Leg 2– Punta Del Este, Uruguay – Cape Town, South Africa
Leg 3– Cape Town, South Africa – Fremantle, Australia
Leg 4– Fremantle, Australia – Newcastle, Australia – Airlie Beach, Australia
Leg 5– Airlie Beach, Australia – Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam – Zhuhai, China
Leg 6– Zhuhai, China – Qingdao, China – Seattle, USA
Leg 7– Seattle, USA – Panama Canal, Washington, DC, USA
Leg 8– Washington, DC, USA – Oban, Scotland – Portsmouth, UK

About the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race:
The Clipper Race was established in 1996 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world in 1968-69. His aim was to allow anyone, regardless of previous sailing experience, the chance to embrace the thrill of ocean racing; it is the only event of its kind for amateur sailors.

Held biennially, the Clipper 2023-24 Round the World Yacht Race got underway September 3 for the fleet of eleven identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s. This 13th edition has 24 crew aboard each yacht, coming from 63 different nationalities (105 sailors from the USA) for the 40,000 mile circumnavigation of the world.

The course is divided into 8 legs divided into individual races, with some of the crew in for the entire circumnavigation while others will do individual legs. The team having the best cumulative score over the entire course will win the Clipper Race Trophy.

Following the start, teams will sail to Cadiz in Spain and on to Punta del Este in Uruguay on the first leg, with the course then extending to South Africa, Australia, Viet Nam, China, USA, and Scotland before finishing back in Portsmouth on July 2024.