Clipper Race Around the World arrives in Airlie Beach
A team of amateur sailors have arrived at a Whitsunday holiday hotspot with toilet paper stuck to their ceilings as the strength of the wind sends participants “basically flying in the air”.
Whitsunday
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Hundreds of onlookers were admiring a fleet of boats at the Coral Sea Marina after participants of a worldwide race reached the holiday hotspot after a week of sailing across the Coral Sea.
The crew aboard the 21-metre-long Zhuhan, have won the Clipper Race’s stretch from Newcastle to Airlie Beach, and they gave us special access of their racing boat.
For the 22 people aboard the Zhuhan — most of whom are amateur sailors — it’s the journey of a lifetime, where they have to sleep, eat, and perfect all the details needed to win.
The Clipper Race is one of the biggest boat races in the world where a qualified skipper and first mate lead a team of amateurs 40,000 nautical miles around the world in a 11-month long race.
Participant Frank Zeng, 30, is representing China throughout the competition.
Mr Zeng said he has previously sailed for several weeks at a time, but always in “cruising style”, never a full-on race.
He said life on board is full of challenges with meters of water they are constantly fighting against while making sure everyone remains safe.
“At the beginning, it definitely feels scary, because the water just washes on deck, you get wet most of time and you have to (...) make sure you don’t hurt yourself,” he said.
“You know you’re going to have horrible weather sometimes, but you just learn how to deal with it.”
Zhuhai’s skipper James Finney said that participants all go through a four-week intensive training prior to going on the actual Clipper Race, where they spend the four weeks at sea non-stop.
“They need to know how tough and rough it’s going to be,” Mr Finney said.
“Once you’re in, you’re in.”
‘Basically flying in the air sometimes’
Mr Zeng said the race has been the opportunity for him to go beyond his own limits, including being able to repair a sail on deck, fighting strong winds while struggling to breathe.
“I call it the zero gravity area, you’re basically flying in the air sometimes,” he said.
“To keep your breath steady is a difficult thing, not mentioning that you’re doing a difficult thing, stitching, with a needle like, the biggest needle I’ve ever seen in my life, trying to push it through the sail which is a very thick material.”
Everything is tilted
Clipper Race participant Dickie Danby explains that life on board is all about making sure everything is well organised, with food sorted by bags for every day of the race, nets attached to the ceiling carrying loads of toilet paper, participants following a roster of shifts that lets them know when they are supposed to help operate the boat and when they are able to sleep.
Mr Danby said of the biggest challenges on-board is privacy with only two toilets for a crew of 22, that closes with only a thin curtain, while there is no possibility for any showers.
One consistent thing found across the boat is how everything is adapted to how much the boat and the sail will move during the race.
There are steps marked on the floor, that are used as a ladder when the boat is tilted near 90 degrees, to the point that the sail could touch the water.
The beds can be tilted as well and a protection fabric has to be tied whenever someone sleeps to make sure no one falls over.
Even the kitchen stove can be moved, to follow the inclination of the boat.
“Sailing a boat is a whole mixture of fun, excitement, sometimes tedium, but for me, everyone gets a little scared at some stage, there’s always something,” Mr Danby said.
“But the safeties are very focused and as soon as it gets to a certain speed, we’re all clipped on, we have harnesses.
“We have all of these lines to make sure we’re completely secure.”
This is the fourth time that the Clipper Race is coming to the Whitsundays, with the last one coming in 2020.
Participants will leave for the next stretch of the race on January 22.
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