10:45 PM Thu 17 Sep 2009 GMT
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'Hull & Humber skippered by Piers Dudin at the start of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Race in Hull'
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All ten of the Clipper 09-10 yachts are now berthed in La Rochelle where the crews have taken advantage of the sunshine that has broken through to get on with the business of deep cleaning, debrief meetings and the general maintenance that is part of any challenging ocean race.
Talk on the pontoons has been about one subject - the Race Committee's decision to protest two of the yachts, Hull & Humber and Cork, for contravening the sailing instructions - and what that might mean to the points each team will win for Race 1.
Hull & Humber entered the TSS and, in their race declaration, admitted to missing a mark in the Humber at the start of the race. Ordinarily any team that passed to the wrong side of a course marker would turn around and pass it on the correct side to exonerate themselves and avoid any penalty, including possible disqualification.
The Race Committee has been collecting data from all ten yachts and analysing the evidence today to assess any advantage gained by the two yachts and a ruling on the penalty is possible tomorrow (Friday).
All ten yachts finished within 5 hours and 41 minutes of each other, so any penalty could have a large impact on the team standings once the confirmed results for Race 1 have been published.
The order of finishing and provisional results are as follows:
1 Team Finland
2 Cork, Ireland
3 Hull & Humber
4 Spirit of Australia
5 Cape Breton Island
6 Jamaica Lightning Bolt
7 Uniquely Singapore
8 Edinburgh Inspiring Capital
9 Qingdao
10 California
The skippers are all philosophical about this first race, claiming it as a settling in period for which they and their crews had set conservative goals.
Back on Sunday Edinburgh Inspiring Capital was first across the start line in the Humber at the beginning of the 35,000-mile race. Skipper, Matt Pike, said, 'Our goal was to finish mid-fleet on this race. We just need a bigger fleet.'
Those who missed any of the action can replay the race on the Race Viewer on
www.clipperroundtheworld.com
. We have had some reports of a few teething problems with the viewer and our developers have been working very hard to oust the gremlins. It has been tested across all browser platforms for a number of weeks and the issues have been pinned down to Version 8 of Internet Explorer (IE8) and Google Maps. We are continuing to work on it to improve it but, in the meantime, we have found it works best on IE7 or Mozilla Firefox.
As well as the replay function, by clicking on Wind, viewers can see the wind conditions the fleet is expected to encounter during racing. By clicking on 12H 24H and so on, the forecast conditions for up to 48 hours ahead are visible.
Compared to the massive spectacle of the race start on the Humber, the stopover in La Rochelle will be a much quieter affair, giving the crews time to settle into life on board and reflect on the challenge ahead. The sight of the ten yachts moored in the Bassin des Chalutiers, in the heart of the old town, is a popular one for the local Rochelais out for a stroll in the late evening sunshine.
Delegations from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia's Masterpiece and Cork, Ireland will be hosting media and tourism promotion events during the stopover before Race 2 to Rio de Janeiro gets underway on Tuesday 22 September.
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