Qingdao & Race start

Qingdao stopover - what can I say? - bedlam is a word. I'll post further when I
get back to land but a combination of boat prep, Clipper admin and very late boozing
meant race start was a welcome relief!

Race morning gave us something of a bombshell though when our water maker packed up. So we loaded a ton extra of water and headed off. It means strict rationing of water - no showers (yes, no showers for 30+ days!!) and a big weight handicap. No point complaining though - at least we made the start line and now, after 24 hours of motoring we are finally racing. Brilliant to be out sailing again and although fairly cold, conditions are good.

Day 1

After 24 very frustrating hours motoring south east of Qingdao, word finally came through from Clipper Race HQ that we would soon be racing. It was going to be a Le Mans start to the race - a technique many of us had practiced already in training. It involves all crews preparing their boats to sail while still sailing under engine with just the main sail raised.

All 10 boats line up in the same speed and direction alongside then all cut engines at the same time and then one minute later crews are "released" to raise sails and start racing. It is a great test of crew coordination and trimming ability as ultimately there are ten identical boats moving in the same direction at the same speed in the same tight stretch of water so it is massively rewarding to see your boat pulling away from others.

It is quite an impressive site watching ten 68 foot racing boats lined up this way but sadly on this occasion, other than a few unimpressed seagulls there weren't many around to appreciate it. And so the race was finally on. Although it didn't feel like our start when particularly well, the trimming was good and we were probably third off the line. Then the relentless game of "trim, trim and trim again" began.

We've had a good six or seven boats in sight for most of the day and are probably now in a satisfactory fourth or fifth place.  In truth given our weight disadvantage we feared we wouldn't be quite as competitive. This disadvantage was not just down to the extra-large size of some of the crew members joining on this leg, but down to the extra ton on water we had to take on board yesterday before we departed due to the fact that our water maker packed up on departure morning from Qingdao. It's far from ideal but we certainly are not complaining - the alternative was a one week delay in China which would have all but ended our race before it had even begun. For me as a legger joining the race this week it's wonderful to finally be racing.

Next stop San Francisco in early April and in the mean time a whole lot of fun ocean racing.