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In October 2002, Liverpool hosted the world famous clipper races. The eight strong fleet of yachts will sail from Liverpool and circumnavigate the globe travelling more than 35,000 miles and taking about 11 months.
The yachts are named after the city / island of their sponsors: Liverpool, New York, London, Bristol, Cape Town, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Jersey |
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On Saturday 26th October lots of pleasure craft arrived at the Albert Dock in preparation for the clipper race. |
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On Sunday 27th October the race start was postponed due to bad weather. This was probably a good idea, other shipping was less fortunate such as the P&O Ferry Pride of Portmouth which was blown into a type 23 frigate (HMS St Albans).
On Monday 28th October the weather was much better and yachts sailed off. |
| LIVERPOOL CLIPPER
On Saturday 2nd November a crew member of the Liverpool clipper was injured so the yacht dropped the crew member off then continued racing. The Liverpool Clippers final time will be adjusted to take account of the use of engine to drop off the injured crew member. The injured crew member rejoined the Liverpool Clipper at Cascais
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| Shortly after the clippers sailed from Spain an oil tanker sank in the same area, showing how rough the weather was.
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| In September 2003 the clippers returned to Liverpool. To welcome them people lined the Mersey coastline and a plane flew by trailing a banner.
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The clippers were led up the River Mersey by a type 42 destroyer HMS Edinburgh. The Lynx helicopter based on the destroyer flew over the flotila of vessels.
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| Closely following the destroyer was a fire tug Trafalgar. After the clippers crossed the finish line, the fire tug demonstrated how much water a small tug could pump into the air.
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| The assault ship HMS Albion berthed in Canada Docks as part of the occasion and members of the public were given a guided tour.
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