Yachting-Live

Race 9 Of Clipper 07-08 Gets Underway
Santa Cruz, California, USA: With the Californian sun shining and ten knots of breeze from the north west, Race 9 of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race series began at 1300 local (2000 GMT). Uniquely Singapore was the first of the ten-internationally sponsored yachts across the line, closely followed by their Asian rivals, Qingdao.

As the fleet approaches the southern tip of Baja, California, the winds will start to reduce and become much less stable in direction. At this point the direct route along the coast is heavily favoured in terms of the least miles. However, fickle and inconsistent winds closer in may see some teams opting to sail further offshore in order to benefit from better wind speeds and direction.

They will all try to make as direct a route possible, parallel to the coast, but at the same time trying not to get too close as the effect of the land my reduce wind strength. The trick along this initial part of the race is to try not to damage too many of the downwind sails. Several boats have recently been penalised for damaging sails and once the Race Committee considers the repairs and replacements in Santa Cruz further penalty points may be awarded.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.