Clipper Round The World Race: Meet the team sailing around the globe in 11 months from Portsmouth

The News, Portsmouth

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Transcript

00:00 This is CV30, otherwise known as the Washington DC Clipper 70 boat. It is one of 11.

00:08 We are going to sail this around the world. The way that we do so is in this big gap here,

00:14 we have a big mainsail, so that's our main bit of propulsion.

00:18 And then forward on our bow, we have two sails that sit in that area there.

00:23 Two different types of sails, so we have two different types, but there's actually nine different combos that you can make.

00:32 So we've got similar sails but different sizes, which changes on what the wind strength is,

00:38 and that's the decisions that we have to make.

00:41 All of the sails that we use are controlled by the lines, so all of these colourful lines that we've got in the cockpit here,

00:47 are all what controls our sails, and these big round things are called winches, and that's how we actually control the lines themselves.

00:55 So this is our sail locker, so these are all our new lines, so depending on which sails we've got up at the time.

01:04 We have our heavyweight spinnaker sheets, we've got our staysail sheets, we've got our lightweight spinnaker sheets,

01:11 and we've got our Yankee sheets, so depending on which one of these many sails we've got up at the time,

01:18 we want to have different sheets attached.

01:22 More often than not, the sail's going to come out of this sail locker hatch,

01:28 so you generally open it up, shut the hatch open, and then depending on what sail it is,

01:36 it can take two to sometimes five or six people to actually get the sail out.

01:43 So, yeah, they're really heavy things.

01:47 The Yankee one is our biggest Yankee, our biggest white sails headsail,

01:54 and that you're going to want a fair few people to actually help get out of here.

02:00 That's our lightest spinnaker, it's our Code 2. This is heavier than the Code 1,

02:07 but the cut's also different, which means it's better for downwind.

02:10 And then we've got the Code 3, which is for our heaviest wind conditions downwind,

02:15 and that's got a similar cut to the Code 1, which means you can actually go quite far upwind with it as well.

02:22 And then our windseeker, got a W on it, essentially the windseeker is up to eight knots,

02:28 and that's fairly good for about 60 degrees off the wind.

02:33 It's one of the lesser-used sails.

02:38 That's the engine and generator. It's highly exciting.

02:49 Again, I've no idea what I'm supposed to be showing you.

02:52 No, just go along to it.

02:54 And this is essentially half the bunks where people sleep, so you've got the fuel tanks underneath.

02:59 And then, just due to lack of space, it works out roughly as one of these little cubbies per person.

03:05 Roughly. Every boat will be slightly different, I'm sure, depending on how they choose to use this space.

03:10 How many crew members can be held on here at once?

03:12 I think 23 is the maximum that we have.

03:15 Is that a number of people going on the race itself?

03:18 I think so. Well, at least I'm UNICEF, so we've got 23.

03:24 I think that includes Skipper and me.

03:28 This is the first mate, AQP, with their bunk.

03:32 So this is the maintenance section now.

03:35 And that's all the tool storage.

03:38 Well, half the tool storage.

03:41 It all becomes a little bit...

03:44 And then this is the nav station.

03:46 So what goes on here?

03:50 Pretty much everything. So you've got navigation, you've got the weather, you've got all the communication stuff.

03:57 So you've got the radios, sat phone, everything.

04:00 Skipper's got a laptop.

04:02 The media team, the media coordinator, has a laptop, which is more for the crew.

04:08 But that's still communication just between Skipper and the boat.

04:12 So for media upload stuff.

04:15 You've got all the electrical stuff.

04:18 All the electrical stuff. Engines.

04:21 Anything you can think of to run the boat, essentially, comes through here.

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05:35 I have propulsion.

05:37 Have a little walk around, you can kind of see what it's like.

05:40 And you can sort of feel, like right now, it's kind of like...

05:42 It feels... It's quite easy to move around. It's quite flat. It's okay.

05:46 But to give you some idea of what, like, when these boats actually start sailing, they can lean over.

05:51 And, like, you know, all of this can be in the water.

05:54 So we've moved it right on here.

05:56 So these, like, parts of the boat here that you think are just a bit of an ankle hazard at the moment,

06:01 they're actually to keep you being able to stand up without falling.

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