CANADIAN CLAIMS VICTORY IN WORLD’S LONGEST, TOUGHEST OCEAN RACE
Vancouver’s Eric Holden, 34, skipper of team Henri Lloyd claims the overall victory in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race which returns to London in a Thames Parade in front of thousands of supporters.
First ever Canadian wins the bi-annual race – currently in its ninth edition.
• 16 individual races, scored in Formula 1 style points system. Henri Lloyd unbeatable in final race.
One of the biggest challenges of the natural world and a supreme endurance test, the Clipper Race is 40,000 miles long and has taken ten and a half months to complete.
The only event of its kind in the world for amateur sailors – only the skippers are professional. 40% of crew had never sailed when they first signed up for the challenge.
Henri Lloyd has 21 international crew including Canadian’s; heavy-duty mechanic James Dick from Victoria,B.C, college grad student Morgen Watson from Calgary, nurse Fiona Garforth-Bles from Bragg Creek, Alberta and construction inspector Michael Jauncey from Toronto.
Sailing legends Sir Robin Knox Johnston and Dame Ellen McArthur will lead the welcome committee for the Henri Lloyd and the twelve Clipper Round the World Yacht Race teams, including the GREAT Britain entry, alongside thousands of friends, family and spectators who are expected to line the Thames and provide emotional homecoming.
670 crew from over 40 different nations have participated throughout the circumnavigation challenge which consists of 16 races around the world since it departed London on 1September 2013.
Teams have triumphed some of Mother Nature’s toughest tests and raced through some of the planets toughest, most remote waters in its route across six continents via Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Australia, Singapore, Qingdao – China, San Francisco, Panama, Jamaica, New York, and Derry Londonderry.
