THEY say it's the challenge of a lifetime - and none of the people who've responded to the challenge is likely to disagree.
THEY say it's the challenge of a lifetime - and none of the people who've responded to the challenge is likely to disagree.
The Clipper round-the-world race got underway on Sunday. Ahead of the 10 yachts lies a gruelling 35,000-mile voyage. It won't end until next July - 10 months away.
Scotland's hopes in the race are pinned to the mast of the Glasgow: Scotland with Style yacht.
The Evening Times is one of the media partners behind the yacht and its adventurous crew. Yesterday we reported on the action from Liverpool, and today, RUSSELL LEADBETTER talks to some of those involved in the challenge of a lifetime.
THE Glasgow: Scotland with Style clipper is more than just a yacht - it's also one of the best marketing devices the city has ever seen.
The race started on Sunday and over the next 10 months it will navigate the world's oceans, racing between 14 ports on five continents before returning to Liverpool next July.
It's the ultimate yachting experienceIF Sir Robin Knox-Johnston had a lump in his throat as he watched the Clipper yachts leave Liverpool on Sunday, no-one could have blamed him. Thirty-eight years ago, after all, he made history by becoming the first man to sail single-handedly and non-stop around the world. On April 22, 1969, he sailed into Falmouth aboard his battered yacht, Suhaili, after 312 days at sea. Along the way he suffered an attack of appendicitis, and lost his radio and the boat's self-steering. He had to rely on an old pub barometer to get weather forecasts. On the Southern Ocean he encountered the world's highest waves. One, all of 25 metres high, was nearly the end of him. But he made it back safe and sound - and he made headlines all over the world. Sir Robin is the chairman of Clipper Ventures. The Clipper race is his idea, and he is proud of what it has achieved over the last decade. "We've done eight round-the-world races and this is the sixth in the Clipper series," he said. "When we set this up in 1995, the intention was to do only one round-the-world race. "But when things didn't work out with the people with whom we were going to operate, we decided we would have to do our own race. "But then, having done one race, you've got all those boats, and you've got to make them pay somehow, so we decided to organise." Sir Robin, who finished fourth in the Velux 5 Oceans Round the World Race late last year, continued: "I've had a huge amount out of yachting. It's a fabulous sport - it brings an awful lot of satisfaction and development to people, and I love seeing that. "I wanted to spread the pleasure I've had from it to others. "The ultimate in yachting is to go round the world. A lot of people would love to do it but haven't got the money or the confidence. "I thought, if we provide the boats, the skippers, the training and the route, they can achieve this ambition. "So we said to people, here's the opportunity - do you want to take it up?" Many Clipper veterans say the experience of sailing round the world in a 68-ft yacht has changed them for the better. "What we notice when we get back is how much they've changed," says Sir Robin. "You see it in their demeanour - they've got that inner self-confidence that seems to say, I can do anything now if I want to'. "Seeing these people getting this opportunity gives me enormous satisfaction. "I always say to people, if you want it easy, sail round the world on the Queen Mary. "You'll have a great time, you'll maybe put on some extra weight, but will you have the same satisfaction at the end of it? "The answer is, no you won't. The satisfaction comes from a difficult achievement. "We can't stop the Clipper crew's muscles from aching. We can't stop them from being doused in freezing water when they've got up in the middle of the night. "But sailing around the world with us allows them to do something a bit special with their lives. "It is something they will never, ever forget." |
Each port is expected to be filled with thousands of sightseers, not to mention media crews, as the yachts draw in.
Given that the race will be seen by 200 million people worldwide, the potential to spread the Glasgow word is huge.
The global reach of the Clipper race is why cities have been falling over themselves to brand each of the 10 yachts.
Glasgow's race partners are Braehead shopping centre and malt whisky company Gordon and MacPhail, makers of the Speyside single malt Benromach, while the Evening Times and Radio Clyde are media partners.
Gordon Ritchie, head of projects marketing at Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said: "I've been involved in marketing for 22 years and, hand on heart, I have never known as powerful a tool for a city as this."
He recalls the response in Durban, South Africa, when the yachts in the 05-06 Clipper race were setting off on their next leg.
"The reaction was incredible - you had the equivalent of the entire population within the Glasgow boundary turning up.
"That was only one port, and it wasn't even the biggest in the race.
"This year, we're racing alongside yachts representing such places as New York, Australia, Nova Scotia and China - we're on a world stage in this game. It's a bit like the World Cup, in that respect."
One reason why Glasgow hopes it will do well this year rests with its tenacious and highly experienced skipper, Hannah Jenner.
Despite being just 27, she has already raced across the Atlantic five times, and will be the only professional sailor aboard.
"I've seen her in operation and she's something else," says Gordon. "Of all the people we saw, Hannah was the best. I did extensive homework on her track record and was impressed with what I saw.
"She's somebody to watch and if we have got a chance of doing anything in any of the races, I reckon that this has got to be our year."
Another reason is the fact that the crew members all paid for the right to take part in the race - and many singled out Glasgow as the boat they wanted to sail on.
"You could employ 30 people and pay them big salaries. But what we have here are 40 people paying to work for us.
"They're paying that out of their own pocket for the right to take part in the race and sail on Glasgow."
Dafydd Hughes, a Welshman who lives in Cork, Ireland, is one of the select few who are making the entire 35,000-mile round-the-world trip on Glasgow.
"Dafydd wasn't on the Glasgow boat at first and we had to pull a few strings to get him on it," says Gordon. "So we had this guy, the managing director of his own company, saying, I want to be on the Glasgow boat.' We're glad to say he got his way.
"There was another guy, Stephen Ballantyne, who went down to the crew reception recently. He was the only man there in a kilt.
"He's Glaswegian, but they were going to put him on another boat. He made his feelings known in no uncertain way. He said, If I'm not on Glasgow, I'm not going. I want my money back'."
Gordon smiled. "It worked. Stephen's on our boat now."
The idea of sailing round the world sounds glamorous - though life aboard the yachts is often anything but.
Conditions are cramped and luxuries are few. The crew have to share just two toilets, and wash their clothes in salt-water.
Life on board can be hectic and demanding - the racing element never ceases - and things that everyone else takes for granted, such as daily showers, become a dim and distant memory.
"There's no chance to get your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, either," says one veteran round-the-worlder.
"When it comes to sailing, you just have to muck in. It is arduous - but the sense of achievement at the end is fantastic."
Gordon Lawson, 50, a finance director who is doing the full trip, said: "Sailing around the world with like-minded, highly motivated people is a unique chance to see how you can cope outside your comfort zone."
Crew members also get the chance to see exotic locations.
With an itinerary that includes Brazil, China, Hawaii, Panama city, the Caribbean, and the west and east coasts of America, the Glasgow: Scotland with Style yacht will be taking Glasgow's name abroad over the next 10 months, making headlines and being greeted by vast numbers of sightseers.
No wonder the city's marketing people are so excited.
