Clipper Round the World Race 2025-2026

I first heard about the Clipper Round the World Race in April 2024 from a friend at the gym. Within weeks, I had signed up for one leg of the race.

By this time, my sailing experience had reached an accumulated 20,000 nm of offshore and coastal sailing. I had spent 13 months sailing offshore in the Pacific Ocean doing a circle route from Vancouver to California, Mexico, French Polynesia and Hawaii during a sabbatical from work. I had owned two sailboats.

A sailing bucket-list item remained unfulfilled: to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Clipper seemed to fit the bill. My original intention was to race on one leg, and perhaps sign up for more. Who knows? Perhaps piecemeal my way around the world on Clipper yachts over the next several races. It was a journey that led me to places I never expected to experience. Here is a snapshot of my story.

In August of 2024, I spent two weeks completing my Level 1 and Level 2 race training in Portsmouth, England. The experience rang true for what Clipper marketed the race to be: anyone can sail around the world, even if you’ve never been on a sailboat in your life. Very few people in my training cohort had any sailing experience; some had never been on a sailboat.

Level One Race Training: 23-29 August 2024

Level One was ‘competent crew’ training to teach terminology, knots, safety and the unique aspects of sailing a 70’ yacht. It provided general familiarization with the yacht, basic maneuvers, deck safety, and confidence-building on the water. For this phase of the training, we sailed on a Clipper 68’ from the old fleet of Clipper yachts from earlier editions of the race. We returned to port every evening after a day of sailing.

It was invigorating to helm a 68’ yacht and learn the boat's systems.

Level TWO Race Training: 31 August - 5 September 2024

Level Two was offshore sailing and routines to prepare for days at sea. We headed out into the English Channel for several nights without returning to port. It was a multi-day offshore sailing passage designed to help the crew adjust to life on board, including watch systems (24-hour sailing rotations), cooking, sleeping, and basic maintenance. For most of my cohort, this was their first overnight sailing experience. We sailed from Portsmouth to France and back around the Isle of Wight.

We had a real-life Pan-Pan rescue when one of the crew sailed over a lobster pot in the dark and didn’t know how to stop the engine. Our forward propulsion stopped abruptly when the line caught in the prop and pulled the bolts out of the stuffing box. We had water ingress of 5 litres a minute at the prop shaft and called the Coast Guard. We were rescued and towed back to Gosport to change boats.

By the time I’d completed both stages of training, I was having second thoughts about setting out across the Atlantic Ocean with inexperienced crew. It wasn’t the sailing that concerned me; it was the dynamics. I worried that I was placing myself back into the world of Alpha-male energy with no way to chose my companions. Much like military college, Clipper made all the decisions about team dynamics and professional crew assignments. We would literally set sail to spend 40 days offshore with strangers. It could be amazing. It could be not-so-amazing. I took a few months to think it through, and in the end decided I wanted to complete Leg One of the race. There were enough wonderful people in training to balance out the few unsavouries. I focused my energy on the good people who would share the adventure. I would take the risk.

Level three Race Training: 18-23 april 2025

Level Three focused on advanced race tactics and trimming for speed. The main objective was intensive spinnaker handling, maximizing boat speed, and competitive edge tactics. This week of training took place with my favourite training skipper, Roy Taylor. We were finally training on the Clipper 70s. The actual boats that would be raced around the world. It was all starting to feel very real.

Crew Allocation Day: 17 May 2025

In April 2025, Clipper announced the names and photos of all ten skippers and all ten first mates hired for the race. No one, including the skippers and first mates themselves, knew which combinations would be paired or what the team names would be for the actual race. On Crew Allocation Day, the combinations would be announced, and every crew member was assigned to a team.

Toward the end of the allocation announcements, the agonizing wait was over! I finally heard my name! I was assigned to Team Tongyeong as crew, with Skipper Lou Boorman and First Mate Brian Uniake!!

Level Four Race Training: 11-17 June 2025

Level Four focused on continuing working on advanced race tactics and trimming for speed. This time, we trained with our professional skipper, first mate and our assigned race crew as Team Tongyeong. The tagline was: REMEMBER it’s a race! We prepared for offshore safety and practiced emergency drills like towing, fire, flooding, and crew overboard recovery.

We threw the docklines in Gosport on the first evening and didn’t return to port for four days. The best part was participating in a full race simulation on a medium-distance race stretch to simulate race team dynamics. We trained on our race hull, CV23. To spice up the boat dynamics, Team Tongyeong shared CV23 for the week with Team London Business School, with Skipper Gavin Rees and First Mate Zoe Longley and their team.

It was the best week of training, by a mile! We got a real taste of what life would be like at 45-degree heel and racing hard against the other boats in the fleet. It was fun to meet some of the crew assigned to Tongyeong who would knowing we would race toghether on Leg One.

Next time in Portsmouth, it would be Race Start Weekend!

final race prep and official schedule release

Between completing Level Four training and the Race Start in Portsmouth on Sunday, August 31st, 2025, we were tasked with personal preparation homework. Reflective tape on our foulies with our names, to spec. Learn how to make bread. Pack our kit in dry bags and a duffle that weighed no more than 20kg, not including boots and foulies. My race leg would transit from Portsmouth, England, to Punta del Este, Uruguay, starting in North Atlantic cooler fall weather, hot doldrums at the equator, and back to cooler spring weather in the South Atlantic.

Our Skipper, Lou Boorman, noticed that I had included minor sailing repair and canvas sewing on my list of abilities while answering the in-depth crew questionnaire. She pulled me aside during level four training and asked if I would be able/willing to fashion/sew canvas rope bags to line the cockpit beneath the winches. Without really knowing the extent of the project that I agreed to complete, I said yes. Back home, I spent two weeks designing and sewing the bags. It took me the lenght of time to listen the audiobook versions of all six of Jane Austen’s novels and half of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

And finally, our friends hosted a lovely send-off dinner before I headed back to Portsmouth for the last time. I set off for England with my gear bag and a duffle stuffed with cockpit line bags.

Race Start: Sunday, 31 August 2025

The entire race crew arrived in Portsmouth four days before race start to prepare the boats. We had deep cleaning and final maintenance work to do, bunk assignments, gear storage, provisioning, safety refresher training, and a myriad of last-minute chores. I installed the cockpit line bags and they fit perfectly! Hurray!

Of course, there was a Friday night send-off party strategically hosted two nights before we set sail, to ensure everyone was wholly recovered at race start.

The most impactful moment was attending the Saturday weather briefing. The weather outlook was intense. We were advised of two hurricanes forming out in the North Atlantic Ocean west of our race route. Conditions were expected to be severe.

The first stage of Leg One was intended as a shakedown race that would take us from Portsmouth Harbour, past the Bay of Biscay in France, down the coast of Portugal and into Puerto Sherry, Spain for five nights. It was supposed to be eight nights, but Stage One took several days longer than expected. More on that later!

This photo represents the intensity of what we had all signed up to do. RACE in 70’ yachts. Not just sail. We were racing. You can see my silver hair peeking out from just above the end of the boom on CV23 Team Tongyeong. I was standing in the middle of the cockpit thinking “This is it. We’re finally underway.” When I first saw this photo, it shocked me. I felt so proud of myself. I did it. I signed up and was fully committed.

Race LeG 1, Stage 1: Portsmouth to Puerto Sherry

North Atlantic Ocean: 31 August - 9 september 2025

A picture is worth a thousand words. Our race route is perfectly captured in this image.

The weather forecast had unsettled me. In all my days of sailing, I had never been seasick. On the eve of race start, I thought about taking sea sickness pills but didn’t even have any. I had sailed offshore in rough weather on the Pacific Ocean in the past without getting sick. And I was worried the pills might make me drowsy. So I didn’t take one. Turns out, it wouldn’t have matter either way. I was sick for the first time in twenty years of sailing, alongside the entire crew. Everyone was sick. Three days we were sick. It was relentless. When we were finally through the worst of it, one of my buddies told me that I was going to be awarded the best vocals prize for vomiting.

The Bay of Biscay is reknowned for being a tough crossing. She gave us her best. We took it in stride. CV23 is a racing machine. What a gorgeous boat to sail. Nine days and fifteen hours after race start, we arrived in Puerto Sherry. After facing 50 knot winds and 30 foot seas for the first few days across the Bay of Biscay, the weather settled into decent sailing conditions.

We finished second in the ocean sprint competition and earned 2 extra points. In the overall race, we finished seventh.

Puerto Sherry, Spain: Stopover - 9-14 september 2025

Race LeG 1, Stage 2: Puerto Sherry to PUnta Del Este

Atlantic Ocean: 14 September - 12 October 2025

We spent 29 days at sea racing from Spain to Uruguay. The conditions were challenging but it was an epic experience. The sailing wasn’t challenging per se, but it was an endurance test like I have never completed. Recruit term at RMC was the hardest physical challenge of my life, and the Clipper race comes second. The boat was a race boat. There were no creature comforts. We were hot-bunking, so when I was on watch someone else was in the bunk and vice-versa. These boats were built to withstand five circumnavigations and our race was the sixth circumnavigation. It showed. Systems were failing and everything was tired.

Human resilience is astounding and it’s incredible that we can adjust to such extreme conditions. The cold of the North Atlantic and the heat of the Doldrums and the cold of the South Atlantic. We passed through the seasons of fall, hot summer and cool spring in a matter of one month. I’ve never gone 30 days without a shower until this race, and it wasn’t that bad. Honestly. I was surprised.

The highlight of Stage 2 was crossing the Equator. As the only crewmember onboard who crossed the Equator (twice! now three times!) in a sailboat, I had the honour of being master of ceremonies in a traditional ceremony as crew met Neptune and were transformed from Pollywog to Shellback. Each pollywog had to face Neptune to answer for a perceived crime on the voyage and to fulfill an assigned punishment. Skipper Lou was first to become a Shellback and disappeared as Neptune for the rest of the crew! It was all in good fun and one of the best moments on the trip.

The downside of racing really hit home for me on Stage 2. We sailed past Morrocco, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Brazil’s coastal Archipelago, and into Uruguay without seeing any of those places. We didn’t see land. Not once. As a cruiser, I would have stopped in each of these places to rest and explore for weeks at a time. This realization made me happy that I had only signed up for Leg One. I want to see the places when I go sailing, not just race past them. It was a powerful realization. I’m a cruising sailor at heart.

Still, every time I watch a Universal Film now, I’m struck with the expanse of ocean we crossed and am amazed. The sailing was epic, but we passed by so many wonderful places without a backward glance.

In the overall race, we finished sixth.

This photo is one of the last taken of me on the race. It captures the myriad of feelings flushing through me as we approached race finish. Exhaustion, relief, reflection, a sense of accomplishment and pride. I found something new within that could only have been discovered under the exact conditions I’d experienced on the race. It’s something that I have been able to bring forward in my life. A precious gift.

Race Finish LeG 1, Stage 2: PUnta Del Este, Uruguay

23:24:32HRS UTC, Sunday, 12 October 2025

tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam, south korea

HOst port for Team Tongyeong

A huge thank you to the port city of Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam, South Korea for being our race sponsor and host during the stopover in your beautiful city in March, 2026 during Leg 6. I missed out on the opportunity to be there in person, but was there in spirit and remain grateful for your generosity toward us.

My first billboard appearance! 😂