Clipper Ventures

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a sailing race around the world in 8 legs, with trained amateur crew members. The organisers own a fleet of identical yachts, the Clipper 70, and provide qualified skippers to lead each team. Crew can either sign up for the whole race, or one or more legs. The race was conceived in 1995 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who founded Clipper Ventures plc as a company to run the race. The race ran every two years between 1996 and 2002, and then skipped a year, with subsequent races beginning in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

In contrast to the slightly older but now defunct Global Challenge the Clipper Race uses lighter, faster boats and the route follows the prevailing currents and winds. The current fleet of yachts are 12 Clipper 70 yachts first used in the 2013-14 race. The race has used two other previous classes of yacht comprising 8 Clipper 60s and 10 Clipper 68s. The inaugural race did not feature sponsor's branding. In 2000, The Times newspaper came on board as title sponsor with some yachts being sponsored by international cities. The last race, held in 2015-16 had yachts sponsored by international cities as well as yachts sponsored by varying organisations.

The race was conceived in 1995 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and together with William Ward (CEO), founded Clipper Ventures, a company that would run the race. Jeremy Knight joined in 1998 initially as Finance Director and later as Chief Operating Officer. Various other directors joined the business during its development, but Knox-Johnston, Ward and Knight formed the core of the board and currently they are the only directors.

The origins of the term "Clipper" in the race name comes from the historic tea clippers. In the 1830s tea clippers were small, fast, cargo carrying sailing ships. Premium prices were paid for the season's first consignment of tea from China to reach London. In the Great Tea Race of 1866, four such ships held an unofficial race, and this inspired the name of the modern day race. The eight Clipper 60 yachts were initially named after tea clippers including Ariel, Blackadder, Taeping and Thermopylae.

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