Clipper Fleet to Arrive in Days

Early spring can be relatively quiet on San Francisco Bay. But in the coming days, a rare source of excitement will energize Bay waters, as the 10-boat Clipper Round the World fleet finishes its longest leg — from Qingdao, China — off the Golden Gate YC.

As you can see if you check the real-time race viewer, Gold Coast Australia is leading the pack of identical sisterships, and may pass beneath the Golden Gate as early as Friday.

Having left Qingdao on March 4, it will take most boats close to a full month at sea to complete the nearly 6,000-mile leg — an effort that will likely put their crews in the mood to celebrate once they finally arrive. A wide variety of Bay Area marine organizations have volunteered to help them do just that, by ‘adopting’ individual boats, and greeting them when they arrive at the Jack London docks, where they’ll be berthed during the Strictly Sail Pacific boat show. 

In the sponsorship lottery, Encinal YC drew the Dutch entry De Lage Landen; OCSC drew Derry-Londonderry; Corinthian YC drew Edinburgh Inspiring Capital; Richmond YC drew Geraldton Western Australia; J/World drew Singapore; Club Nautique drew New York; Dragonboaters drew China; California Canoe & Kayak, Bay Green and Bay Crossings drew Visit Finland-Welcome to Yorkshire; and believe it or not, Latitude 38 drew the current leader, Gold Coast Australia, which may arrive as early as happy hour on Friday. We’re sure that all these organizations would love to have more ‘greeters’, and if you’d like to join us we’d love to have you. We’ll have an interim report on Leg 6 in the April 1 edition of Latitude 38 magazine, and additional info on the race in May.