After 70-day rough trip, Clippers sail in to Albany

Two veteran Clipper 68 yachts moored in Albany on Monday, ahead of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race’s arrival in Albany next month.

The yachts left from the UK in September and took 70 days to arrive in Albany via Cape Town in South Africa.

Both yachts are bound for Sydney where they will be based until participating in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race on Boxing Day.

Skipper Piers Dudin said due to leaving early in the season, sea conditions from Cape Town were rough.

“Most yachts come across to here about November, December, January, so coming across September, October we knew straight off we’d be in for some feisty weather and we weren’t disappointed,” he said.

“We certainly had some big waves, I’d say 30m waves on one day and then for the previous week we had a lot of fronts coming through.”

Dudin said the revenue and exposure the Clipper World Yacht Race would bring to Albany when it arrives in late November would be significant.

“It’s a change-over port, so a lot of the crew will be getting off and there’s more crews coming on and they will have their families, so in that sense there’s a pay-off for Albany in the short term,” he said.

“Once the race leaves it also leaves the legacy Albany can put on an event of this size in terms of the media and numbers it generates.

“Essentially, it inspires people to take on a challenge … a lot of the crew have never been sailing before, none of them are professional sailors, but they take on the challenge which is applicable to anyone with whatever they want to do.”

The Clipper yachts have travelled four-and-a-half times around the world.