All aboard the Clipper race start
Details for the week of festivities and timings for the Clipper 2017-18 race start, taking place on 20 August in Liverpool, have been unveiled.
The race start will begin with a slipping lines ceremony at 0915 in the city’s Albert Dock before all 12 yachts and their crew form a parade of sail on the River Mersey from 1115 to 1200. At 1230, the Clipper 2017-18 Race start gun will mark the beginning of the circumnavigation, which will start with a short course on the Mersey.
The fleet is due to arrive in the city on Monday 14 August. There will be an official opening of the Clipper Race Village and a white sail parade of the fleet on the Mersey. A week-long series of public events and activities at the Clipper Race Village will include free public talks and the opportunity to look around one of the Clipper 70-foot ocean racing yachts.
Crew will race over 3,000NM across the Atlantic to Ponte del Este, Uruguay. From there the fleet proceeds to Cape Town, Fremantle, Sydney, Hobart, the Whitsundays, Sanya and Qingdao, Seattle, Panama, New York and Derry-Londonderry, before completing the circumnavigation in Liverpool on 28 July, 2018.