‘Everyday people’ set sail from Seattle for around-the-world race

Winds died to 2 to 3 mph from the south-southwest and Elliott Bay was glass calm. Not ideal for sailing, but not a storm either.

Those were the conditions at Seattle’s Bell Harbor Marina as 11 sailing teams from around the world set off Friday in 70-foot ocean racing yachts for the seventh leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

The teams, each with 20 to 24 people, will traverse 7,200 miles, from Seattle to Panama and on to Washington, D.C.

Organizers say the event trains “everyday people to become ocean racers.”

Each participant must complete four weeks of intense training before taking part in one or all eight stages of the circumnavigation. As for the crew, 30% of them, who hail from 55 nations, have never been on a sailboat before readying for this race.

So far, the teams have raced over 20,000 nautical miles. The event started in Portsmouth, England, on Sept 3. After the race reaches D.C., it’s on to Scotland then back to Portsmouth on July 27, some 11 months after they departed. The full around-the-world challenge is 40,000 nautical miles.

Della Parsons, crew recruitment director for Clipper Ventures, did a presentation Wednesday in Seattle meant to inspire people to give the adventure a try. As she showed video from a previous race that included huge waves and difficult conditions, she said “You could see people’s eyes widening and thinking, ‘This is ridiculous. I could never do that.’ And then I said to them at the end of the video, ‘I know you’re thinking that but you have to remember all of the people that you’ve just seen on this video are just like you. Two years before that they were also sitting in a presentation thinking ‘this is ridiculous.’ And now look at them. They’ve just really achieved something remarkable.”

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