[YachtNews]

May 22, 2008: The Clipper Round the World Race: "The final leg of the race started in Santa Cruz, California and ended in Port Antonio, Jamaica." Just 57 seconds separated the first and second placed teams in the race from Santa Cruz, California to Jamaica, Hull & Humber securing a fourth victory in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race.

Crossing the finish line running a mile due north of Folly Point lighthouse, Port Antonio, Jamaica, at 2223:29 local time (0323:29 GMT) Hull & Humber brought to an end three days of fast and furious racing, beating New York by the narrowest of margins in the 590-mile race from Colon, Panama.

Eight of the ten internationally-backed yachts were in sight of each other as the fleet raced towards Port Antonio, the leading pack separated by 13 miles or less for much of the last 24 hours. The skippers pushed crews and boats hard to gain every extra knot of speed to put distance between themselves and the opposition.

The favourable easterly breeze helped the fleet speed towards their destination, a welcome change after the light airs on the race from Santa Cruz to Panama.

Spraying celebratory champagne over his crew, Hull & Humber’s skipper Danny Watson said, “Another win! Obviously it was very, very close. We had the other boats in sight for three days and squalls in the distance at night so the positions were always a bit of a mix up during the night time but we pushed hard. The guys just had belief all the way through. We had a good lead coming in to the end and found a bit of a wind hole but we just kept belief and it came good in the end.”

The victory extends Hull & Humber’s lead over New York to three and a half points, with Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, who finished third in Race 10, ten points behind the English team.

Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, “This has been a very intense race and all the skippers are now focussed on the overall result of this competition. It’s a bit like the end of the Premiership season and it’s all building up to be decided on the last weekend. This is possibly the closest contest since the Clipper Race began in 1996 and there are still a lot of points to be won in a very short space of time. There are two big battles brewing at the top of the table and in the middle and it would be very easy for any of the teams to slip up as we saw during Race 9 from Santa Cruz when tactical choices failed to pay off.”

Port Antonio on Jamaica’s northern coast is Jamaica’s third largest port and one of the island’s most important tourist attractions. Now a centre for eco-friendly projects and untouched by mass tourism, it became a boom town in the 1880s after the beginning of the banana trade and promotion of the port as a destination for wealthy American travellers. It was glamorised by Hollywood as a model of paradise in the 1940s and 50s, an image reinforced by the arrival of movie star Errol Flynn when his yacht washed ashore in bad weather. His house on Navy Island overlooks Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio where the Clipper fleet is berthed for the duration of the stopover in Jamaica.

Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, The Honourable Edmund Bartlett MP, will visit Port Antonio during the Clipper 07-08 visit. Minister Bartlett will present the pennants to the first three teams at the prizegiving ceremony at the Ken Wright Cruise Ship Terminal on the evening of Thursday 22 May, and will meet the crews and visit the yachts on Friday 23 May.

The race will restart from Port Antonio on Saturday 24 May at 1400 local time (1900 GMT). The boats will leave Errol Flynn Marina at 12 noon (1700 GMT) and sail in formation past Folly Point where spectators will be able to have an excellent view of Jamaica and the other nine yachts in the Clipper 07-08 fleet.

For More information: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/...10_to_jamaica/

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