The Race

Clipper Ventures 2007/08, the sixth of the biennial Round the World yacht races, starts from Liverpool in mid-September.  The ten yachts will follow the East-about format first seen in the Clipper 2005/06 race.  The route will be similar to that of the 05/06 race but with some additional stopovers.  The timing of the start is crucial in order to take advantage of favourable winds along the route whilst avoiding, where possible, predictable storm systems and the hurricane season.
As previously, the event will comprise fourteen races over seven legs.  From Liverpool the first short stopover will be a European port, still to be decided.  From there, the yachts will set off to tackle the Atlantic en route to Brazil, arriving late October.  The second leg is another traverse of the Atlantic to Durban, South Africa, with arrival scheduled in late November.  Leg 3 is from Durban to Fremantle, Western Australia.  This route lies across the challenging Southern Ocean and Clipper’s Round the World Yacht Race is the only crewed race currently to take this route. 
Christmas will be celebrated in Fremantle and then the fleet sets sail for Singapore on Leg 4, which culminates in Qingdao, China, in mid-February 2008.  From China, Leg 5 will head to a port on the west coast of North America with stopovers at Pusan, South Korea, in late February and Hawaii in late March.  Arrival on the North American west coast is expected in mid-April. 
From North America, Leg 6 sees the yachts heading south to Panama and the Canal (Mid May) and then on to the end of that leg at a Caribbean destination in late May.  The final leg will see the crews battling tropical storms on their way to a stopover in New York in early June.  The final crossing of the Atlantic will take the race to another European port for provisioning and maintenance before the triumphant home run back to Liverpool in time to join in with the European Capital of Culture celebrations 2008.