News

Clipper Race provides ticket to life of adventure

31 October 2008

After six editions of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and more than 1.75 million miles sailed, over 1,750 people have sailed with Clipper. For many of those who take part, the race is only the first of many adventures.
For many Clipper alumni, the experience of sailing round the world leaves them wanting more. After stretching their boundaries amongst likeminded peers, life back behind a desk seems dull and new challenges beckon. 
Last May Times Clipper 2000 crew member Andy Flannagan completed the first single-handed vertical circumnavigation. Setting out in October 2005, Andy sailed 31,000 miles on his 11-metre sloop Barrabas to become the first person to sail vertically around the globe.
Last month Clipper 2002 crew member Corrie McQueen and Clipper 05-06 crew member Kimbra Lindus took part in another voyage around the top of the globe. The expedition from Australia to the UK via the North West Passage was completed on 21 September when they arrived in Falmouth.
Corrie, who was a round the world crew member on Glasgow Clipper in Clipper 2002 left Sydney on 10 April and was joined later in the expedition by Kimbra, who circumnavigated on www.westernaustralia.com, the winning boat in Clipper 05-06.
Crewing on a boat around half the length of the ones they sailed in the Clipper Race, the two former Clipper crew members crewed Berrimilla 2, an Australian designed- Brolga 33, through the North West Passage. Beramilla 2 became the 77th and smallest boat including ice-breakers to ever complete the transit.
Corrie said there were so many highlights to the voyage that it is hard to pick out the “best bits”. Speaking after her return to the UK she said: “Seeing polar bears 50 miles offshore swim across the bow of the boat was pretty phenomenal! At their closest the mum and her two cubs can’t have been more than five metres from where I was standing in wee Berri‘s cockpit. Fortunately we were going faster than them so it felt entirely unthreatening - amazing!”
But passing polar bears were just one of many personal high points for Corrie: “On the way into Greenland I was treated to my own personal northern lights display three nights running, alone on watch in the cockpit. That felt pretty special and highlighted for me where we actually were and how we had got there and what we had achieved already.”
Sailing round the world in Clipper 2002 set Corrie in good stead for her career in sailing and her latest challenge. “Racing round the world with Clipper set the foundations for an amazing career since in sailing. The training I received at Clipper has been a sound basis for my confidence and ability as a sailor. It taught me, amongst other things, to draw and learn from every experience and how to manage to happily spend such a long time at sea,” Corrie said, whose longest time at sea on the Clipper Race was 29 days compared to this 55 days on her latest epic voyage.
“And ever since Clipper, I’ve been pretty speedy at taking labels off tins of food and chopping onions with the boat at crazy angles!” she added.
Corrie says that Clipper gave her the confidence and training to launch her career in the marine industry. The two experiences, both representing the pinnacle of achievement for sailors around the world, have given her a great sense of accomplishment.
“Our successful transit through the North West Passage feels like the most enormous personal achievement, without a doubt on a par to the sense of achievement on completing Clipper 2002,” she said.
To follow in the footsteps of these former Clipper crew, apply for a berth on the Clipper 09-10 Race email or call +44 (0)2392 526000. 

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