GREAT BRITAIN CLINCHES LINE HONOURS IN RACE 4 OF CLIPPER RACE INTO ALBANY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
GREAT Britain crossed the finish line into Albany, Western Australia at 13:32:48 local time (UTC+8), just 27 minutes ahead of Henri Lloyd, to clinch its second consecutive win, following a dramatic and close fought 5000 mile race in a challenging leg through the Southern Ocean from Cape Town, South Africa in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race.
GREAT Britain Skipper Simon Talbot celebrated the win with his crew and will also be awarded the Kinjarling Cup by the City of Albany. He said: “That was so emotional I had tears in my eyes as we crossed the finish line. We are absolutely delighted as it was such a tough race and we really didn’t expect to win.
“We had our fair share of dramas, particularly when we were knocked down by a big wave and crew morale took a hit, but we picked up the pace again. The crew is a winning crew and really knows how to perform. In the last 48 hours there has been just three miles between us and Henri Lloyd, and after a squall we did a double manoeuvre and overtook, and managed to stay ahead until the finish.”
The close finish followed a particularly brutal and dramatic Southern Ocean crossing. Early on in the race, two boats had to divert and medevac off injured crew after exceptionally strong wind speeds when gusts in excess of 90 miles per hour lashed the fleet, providing dramatic surfs and towering waves as it headed south through the Indian Ocean’s Agulhas Current into the Roaring Forties of the Southern Ocean. Every two to three days, the yachts were hit by new low pressure systems which made for an epic and particularly challenging leg.
