A day that we have all been waiting for – news about our boat, crew and just as importantly, dates!
The De Vere hotel was already swamped with Clipper crew in their red jackets when we arrived at 8.30. There was a long queue waiting to have official photos taken, and some familiar faces from my Level 1 training. It was good to catch up with everyone. There was a lot of talking about allocation – but best to be open minded about it as Clipper’s decision is final!! 350 crew had turned up for the day – a record.
At 10.00 we were seated in a large room for various presentations about the race (communications, scoring systems, boat charity etc), and a talk from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Then it was on to details about the race route and dates.
The start will be in the Solent on 31st July – much earlier than had been previously suggested. The race has been pulled forward to make sure that it finishes before the London Olympics start in 2012.
The route will be via Madeira, Rio de Janiero, South Africa (port not yet confirmed), Geraldton (Western Australia), New Zealand (but not Auckland or Wellington), Southport (Eastern Australia), Singapore, Qingdao, California, Panama, New York, Canada (port not confirmed), Derry, Holland (going via north of Scotland and down the North Sea), with the finish in the Solent July 2012.
There were few surprises there, but it was good to get confirmation of the race start and finish, and also the ports for my Leg (apart from the guessing game about New Zealand). We were also given approximate dates for each leg, as these have now changed. Leg 4 will be setting off from Geraldton at the start of November, almost a month earlier than I had thought, and if the race is going to schedule will be finishing in Southport just before Christmas. There is a long stopover in New Zealand for the big boat lift when all 10 boats are taken out of the water to be scrubbed off (guess who does that?) and have routine maintenance. I am hoping that we will be allowed some time off while we are there.
Next it was time to introduce the ten skippers for the race. Each of them was given an envelope with their crew names in and they had to read them out (just like at the Oscars!)
Seven of the boats have their sponsors announced (Qingdao, Singapore, Derry/Londonderry, De Lage Landen, Visit Finland, Edinburgh and Australia) and there are three boats as yet unbranded. I am on one of those – CV3. I only know one other person on my crew and that is Matt who had just been on Level 2 training with me –so we were both pleased to have a friendly face there.
After the crew announcements we were divided into our new teams to meet our skipper (Rupert Dean) and get bonding! One of the first things we noticed was that CV2 has a lot of Americans and Canadians on it, and CV6 has a lot of South Africans, but CV3 has an almost entirely English crew. When we asked Rupert if we were going to be the ‘English’ boat he said he couldn’t possibly say, but we may not be far off! So, while we all felt a bit disappointed about the lack of sponsor, we are very pleased to feel that we will be representing our very own country!
Rupert seemed rather nervous at being faced with 35+ crew he had never met before who were all hoping for some inspiration, but he coped very well! He had prepared a lot of stuff for us – a training DVD full of useful information, a set of notes, a crew questionnaire, and a pair of lucky red socks each, following in the tradition of Peter Blake, a winning yachtsman from New Zealand (http://www.sirpeterblaketrust.org/sirpeterblake/americascup/redsocks). Until we have a boat sponsor announced we are calling ourselves Team Red Socks, and getting some real team spirit going.
At about 4.00 all 350 of us were taken back to Ocean Marina for the group publicity photos. This was a fun hour or so – lots of inter-team rivalry starting already!
The photos are now on the Clipper website which has gone live for the race, with team profiles listed.
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/the-teams/cv3/
I was shocked to see that they have aged me by a year, but apparently it is your age at the time you sail so I am stuck with it!
Once all the official stuff was out of the way there was a mass exodus to the Pitcher and Piano bar where our crew from CV3 spent the rest of the evening. It was really good to have a chance to chat to others from the crew in more relaxed surroundings, although it became hard to remember everyone’s name and which leg they are doing!
It was a great day, but a long and tiring one coming straight after a week of Level 2 sailing. Level 3 will be interesting now that we are in teams for the race – there will be no sharing of team information with other crews!!
I hope it wont be long before I can post news about our boat sponsor and also our boat charity – keep checking!!
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