A spectacular welcome greeted Burnham-On-Sea yacht skipper Mark Preedy on Saturday (July 5th) when he and the other crews of the Round the World Yacht Race arrived back in Liverpool at the end of their 35,000-mile circumnavigation.
For the crew onboard Mark’s yacht, Uniquely Singapore, and the other nine 68-foot ocean racing yachts, the return to Albert Dock marked the end of a challenge of a lifetime as they battled the elements in search of victory.
In the final race from Cork, Ireland, to Liverpool, Uniquely Singapore finished in second place, a strong finish to a consistent campaign from the team who set out to sail their own race and ensure above all that the team remained a happy and cohesive unit, learning as much as they possibly could.
Skipper Mark Preedy told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “I’ve been their skipper, their dad, their mum, their supervisor and their teacher and I’ve run the boat exactly the same way from the start to the finish and these guys have learned more because of that.”
“It doesn’t really reflect on a few positions we’ve had in the end but this last race where we’ve come second is a fine example. We were racing alongside one of the other boats where we saw the skipper on the helm for six hours. I was on the helm for two and then handed over and let them do it.”
“It was difficult times but it didn’t warrant me being on the helm for that long and the two guys we put on the helm started pulling away and we kept fending them off. So they’ve obviously learned a lot because if they can hold off another skipper at the helm that says a lot. And it wasn’t our specialist helms either.”
Uniquely Singapore then joined the rest of the fleet in the ‘Liverpool 08 Dash’, a fun race up the Mersey, before parading past the waving crowds.
Crossing the finish line overnight at the end of the 14th and final stage of the Clipper Race, the US entry, New York, claimed the maximum ten points for securing their sixth first place of their campaign and the Clipper Trophy.
The Clipper fleet’s arrival back in Liverpool at the end of their 35,000-mile circumnavigation was part of the city’s European Capital of Culture 2008 celebrations and thousands of Liverpudlians, race supporters and friends of the crews lined the banks of the Mersey to welcome the yachts back home.
The iconic Albert Dock provided the venue for the prize giving ceremony and crowds thronged the area as each of the top three teams overall was presented with their pennant by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Steve Rotheram.
The race began in Liverpool on 16th September 2007 and, over the last ten months, the teams have circumnavigated the globe, crossing the Atlantic three times, the Pacific once, and sailed across the infamous Southern Ocean, with stopovers on five continents.
The Clipper Race is the brainchild of legendary yachtsman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who, in 1969 became the first man to sail solo, non-stop around the world. In 1996, he created the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race to give ordinary people the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.
FINAL POSITIONS:
The final result of the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race:
1 New York 103.5
2 Hull & Humber 98
3 Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper 87
4 Qingdao 77.5
5 Liverpool 08 75.5
6 Durban 2010 and Beyond 70
7 Uniquely Singapore 69
8 westernaustralia2011.com 65
9 Nova Scotia 50.5
10 Jamaica 40.5
