Clipper race on Crest

DannyB

DannyB

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Anybody watch it last night ?
Film of a crewman going overboard in the Southern Ocean, and of the recovery. Scary stuff, took 17 minutes in all to get him back on board. It looked like somebody else went in to get him, I always thought that was a no-no.
 
Clipper on Quest

I watched it with my wife, the incessant problems and the whinging about them from the miserable members of the crews she found quite worrying and offputting and she is an experienced sailor. I wondered a bit about competence of some of the skippers, a couple of dangerous uncontrolled gybes at night on the 'Australia' boat were blamed on the compass light going out and the problem was addressed later by getting the crew together to let off steam by shouting for five minutes. A bit of selection of a suitable helmsman in extreme conditions might have been a better idea; though when the skipper of the 'Finnish' boat decided to change to selecting crew for tasks according to their competence there was close to a mutiny among the paying customers.
I am a lot less likely ever to want to go on one of these trips after seeing how the boats are managed at sea. There are places where too much democracy can be dangerous but I suppose when people are paying heavily for the trip this changes how you can treat them.
 
This is my third attempt to post this with all the site problems I hope it works this time.

That is the crux of the problem: ' paying customers'.
Taking a look at there website and seeing the cost tells you who they aim there hyped up advertising at.
We left our berth in RCM because of the trouble they caused us.

Last year I put a question to one of the Berthing Masters (he sails) in Royal Clarence Marina, Clippers base. I asked him if he fancied joining Clipper and doing a round the world race.
His reply: Yes I would love to, but not with that effing bunch of Hooray Henry ars*hol*

I was wondering why it was shown on the Quest channel ??? My thoughts are that Quest were probably the only channel interested because Clipper would insist in editorial content control in case they were shown in a bad light.

Also see (http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265903)
 
I saw it last night and it's put me off ever doing it!! I did Madeira - Cape Verde last November on a Farr 65 which took five days... you can see how those dynamics can develop when fee-paying 'clients' are onboard. To be 'stuck' for weeks on end... deary me.

I was also staggered at the two gybes and group shout... WTF is that all about:confused: If anything, it confirmed the delights of solo sailing:)
 
xxyyzz said:
Anyone know how much it is?
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Just been on there site and sod it i cant find the costing now.

I know that for the last race to do the full circumnavigation it was something like 34K £££.
The cheapest legs were, if memory serves, in the order of 5K £££.

That was the basic package then you have all the extras !!!!!!!
 
Sandyman said:
Just been on there site and sod it i cant find the costing now.

I know that for the last race to do the full circumnavigation it was something like 34K £££.
The cheapest legs were, if memory serves, in the order of 5K £££.

That was the basic package then you have all the extras !!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Blimey, I'll stick to dreaming of the JC I think...
 
My wife was puzzled by the man overboard incident, it seemed to be very well filmed and she was not convinced that he did not step over. Not often that you get footage like this, from the point where the casualty stumbles across the cockpit and falls over the rail to the point of recovery. Is filming from all angles continuous on these boats? She was impressed by how cool the casualty remained at the time and afterwards, though some of the other crew did seem quite agitated.
It surely would not have been staged?
 
Having watched them training for the last race, my wife & I both agreed that they would be lucky if they all got back alive. They lost one boat, but not sure if even they would go to the point of staging something like this. But then again, who knows, it is Clipper.
 
Have to say we wondered whether it was staged. Can't believe they would do such a thing but the way he went head first through the guardrails was very neat. If he fell he was very unlucky to go through so cleanly and if it was staged it was a perfect dive!! The reaction of some of the crew suggests it was a genuine accident though.
 
Quest is wholly owned and run by Discovery Networks UK to put content onto Free to Air TV in an attempt to make you want the full Discovery package of pay-tv channels.

If the MOB was staged, then it fooled the BBC too as it appeared on their website last year.
 
I've watched both episodes screened so far and find it compulsive viewing.

I just love the dear lady born with a plum in her mouth who was banished to the Hull boat as some sort of punishment; she had to contend with the extreme of living with common people with a north east accent. After arrival in Brasil she had to admid that they were rather nice. Silly &$tch!

A look through the first aid kit was interesting. Haven't figured out why they carry a pregnancy test kit - anyone help?

The near-mutiny scene when the young Fin (I think he was, may be wrong) was taking the racing a bit too seriously for the majority. I'm surprised that he wasn't left hanging from the yardarm!

They don't seem to show much leadership from any of the skippers but I guess that doesn't make for good commercial tv.

The MoB was a bit scarey. All the casualty seemed to need was a cup of tea and a change of clothes. Is this the definition of madness? Good job it didn't happen within UK territorial waters, our nanny-state would have had him committed to a psychologist for counselling.

I agree with others, the two accidental gybes showed very bad seamanship and I'd have hoped that helming skills would have been better after several thousand miles under their keel.

They did show a clip of the boat that struck the reef/rock. Can't wait to see that episode.

On balance, more, please!
 
Quandary said:
My wife was puzzled by the man overboard incident, it seemed to be very well filmed and she was not convinced that he did not step over. Not often that you get footage like this, from the point where the casualty stumbles across the cockpit and falls over the rail to the point of recovery. Is filming from all angles continuous on these boats? She was impressed by how cool the casualty remained at the time and afterwards, though some of the other crew did seem quite agitated.
It surely would not have been staged?
Click to expand...

I'm sure the man overboard was not staged nor did he dive. I saw a very similar one on a previous program. What you don't get with a TV camera is the angle of heel. I'm sure it was just a trip and gravity took over.
 
Spyro said:
I'm sure the man overboard was not staged nor did he dive. I saw a very similar one on a previous program. What you don't get with a TV camera is the angle of heel. I'm sure it was just a trip and gravity took over.
Click to expand...

Fair enough: that particular crew did seem to include some attention seekers though, and the camera operator seemed very aware of what was going to happen.
 
Quandary said:
Fair enough: that particular crew did seem to include some attention seekers though, and the camera operator seemed very aware of what was going to happen.
Click to expand...

I did think when I watched it that it was very peculiar the way he was shown unclipped then next second over he went. It would have been interesting to see more of the turn around and getting sails down procedure.
 
We had a presentation by David Cusworth, Crew Recruitment Manager of Clipper Round the World Yacht Race at our club YOSC in January. The guy who went over board unclipped prior to going below and the film was taken on a mobile of a chap who wanted to film an albatross! Just the right time and place, and seems a bit extreme if you believe it was set up. Not a place I would like to go.

The cost is £40k, plus training cruises. You do get the complete set of waterproofs. Really interesting talk, but they are recruting for two years time now if you have a few quid to give over. Seems expensive for a new set of waterproofs though.
 
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