People are drawn by the chance to do something exceptional – and the risk is part of the attraction. “I thought, nobody is going to want to sign up.” But, in fact, applications increased. The company says it has made investments in safety gear, becoming “the first ocean-racing company to introduce personal AIS beacons into its lifejackets to aid recovery of a man overboard”.Īfter the deaths of Ashman and Young in the 2015-16 race, the future of Clipper looked uncertain, a source who works at Clipper Ventures told me. “Safety is a core principle of the Clipper Race, ahead of the racing element of the event itself, and therefore the most important part of the training of its crew,” Clipper Ventures said in a statement to the Guardian. Knox-Johnston has strongly denied such claims. “I believe the company is compromised by their desire to make money out of these races.” “If you read Clipper’s material, you’d think their number one concern was to keep people safe, but they have failed in so many ways,” said Margaret Speirs, Simon’s widow, when we first met in 2020. An MAIB investigation into that incident published in June 2018 concluded that the inexperience of the crew was a factor: “With only one professional, employed seafarer on board, the Clipper yachts were not safely manned for the round the world race.” Just over two weeks before Speirs went overboard, a Clipper yacht ran aground and had to be abandoned in a “very serious” incident just off the coast of South Africa. She was not clipped on.Īccording to a report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) into Speirs’s death, published in June 2019, 17 people fell overboard from Clipper yachts between 20. Six months later, on the same boat, Sarah Young, 40, an entrepreneur from London with no previous sailing experience, died after being swept overboard by a wave. On 4 September 2015, Andrew Ashman, 49, a paramedic from Orpington, south-east London, was standing in a known danger zone in the yacht’s cockpit area when he was struck by the boom and suffered a fatal neck injury. There have been other fatal accidents on the Clipper race, too. According to reports, overcrowding and underprepared climbers were partly to blame. May 2019 was one of the deadliest seasons on record: 11 climbers died on Everest in nine days. But it has also been accompanied by accidents and tragedies.
RETROSPECT LONG BOARD PORTABLE
The commercialisation of extreme adventure has been made possible by advances in technical equipment like satnav and portable oxygen metres, and turbocharged by a hunger for personal growth and fulfilment. This included a dentist, an architect, a surgeon, a CEO and a housewife, who had each paid between £33,000 and £100,000. On, 354 climbers made it to the top of Mount Everest in a single day. Photograph: PA Images/AlamyĬlipper Ventures is not the first outfit to sell an iconic and dangerous challenge to amateurs. Seven weeks in, Speirs described the trip on his blog as ‘acute discomfort mingled with elation and awe’. Since it began, the race has become hugely popular. According to Clipper Ventures, the company that runs the race, around 40% of participants are complete novices. The route takes in some of the world’s most treacherous seas, but you don’t need any sailing experience to participate. To take part in the whole race, over seven or eight legs, costs around £50,000. Paying crew can choose to do one or more legs of the journey, and it isn’t cheap.
RETROSPECT LONG BOARD PROFESSIONAL
Eleven yachts, each with a paying crew of 16-22 amateurs, led by a professional skipper and a qualified first mate, start from an English port, and take up to 11 months to cover 40,000 nautical miles. Clipper was designed for ordinary people: offering training and the opportunity to join a mixed-ability crew, it would enable customers to achieve the ambition of a lifetime. At that time, the only people who got to race boats around the world were professional sailors. Simon Speirs is exactly the sort of person Robin Knox-Johnston, the veteran sailor, had in mind when he founded the Clipper Round the World yacht race more than 25 years ago. It took three attempts and 32 minutes to pull him back on board, by which time he was dead. Then the clip on his harness snapped, and he lost contact with the yacht. For several minutes he was dragged behind the boat in the roiling waves, while the crew tried to haul him back in. Speirs was still attached to the boat with a tether.
Speirs made his way to the foredeck, but, at that moment, a massive wave hit, sweeping him over the side. The captain ordered the crew to change the headsail to make the boat easier to control. By 2pm, the wind was getting stronger the yacht lurched up and down waves the size of steep hills.
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