 |
| Taeping, a tea clipper built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Company. |
I may have mentioned that my bro in law works for the Clipper Race [clicky] and for the last few months he's been more than a bit excited, as with the completion of the last race (2025-2026), the next race (2027-2028) will have new boats..
The current fleet have now done four navigations, and although the boats are all in pretty good shape, the new generation boats, of which the first has just been delivered, offer a whole raft of improvements based on the previous boats..
Every sail change forward (and they carry the full suite of foresails so Code 0's, spinnaker, and three or four upwind sails - it's an amateur race, but the skippers are professionals, and they give the crews all the tools to race hard if they wish to) would involve dropping the old (possibly wet) one down the forehatch to the sail room which is shared with living accommodation... 😏
I've been watching the updates on the races Farcebook feed, and it is an absolute beast, so when he offered me and the Jolly Boys a look round it, we almost bit his arm off..
So it was that a contingent of the Jolly Boys convened at the Clipper Race headquarters in Gosport this week..
Just to help put it all in context he showed us around three generations of boats as they still have some of the boats from the generation before last, so this (following) was the first one we went on - the Grandaddy if you will the second generation of boat.. all of them however, even the new boat, share some common characteristics
- foresails are hank on,
- there's no tiller pilots/autohelm,
- no powered/hydraulic winches - they are all human powered
- crew accommodation is spartan (pipe cots and hot bunking)..
It's still in service, 68 foot of racing machine - I think they use these now for crew training [clicky] as part of preparation for each race.. with the arrival of the new boats I guess that role will be shifted a generation..
Note - single wheel - little or no protection for the helm - no cuddy. They have a second cockpit, or rather well, a couple of feet deep, forward at the mast, all the lines seem to lead to that.
This boat will have raced across the Southern Ocean and I have no doubts whatsoever it would have been a very wet ride...
Then to the next generation - so third generation - these are the boats that have just finished the last race - the one we were visiting came in 3rd I think he said..
The boats gained a couple of feet with this generation to 70', note also the change in stern shape, twin wheels and designed for fast down wind legs, helms are still exposed but now they have protection fore and aft - in effect you stand between the two immensely strong mesh covered metal hoops ..
Still very little protection for the crew though - long open cockpit - pedestal winches (which I don't remember seeing on the previous boat) - the sail room is separate to the crew accommodation though, so it should at least be drier down below, though my bro in law says they tend to suffer from condensation as airflow is limited.. more on them here [clicky]
 |
| Note the black line on the side deck - no crew in front of that line without permission.. |
...and then on to the beast, the Clipper RX [clicky] - this is the fourth generation of boat - and as seems usual, has gained another two feet at 72'.
Built in China she's the forerunner of ten new boats (possibly more) and for the first time they have some crew protection - twin wheels with a cuddy in front that also houses the nav station down below.
 |
| Fascinated to see that the running gear for the steering is dyneema b.t.w |
Centre crew cockpit with a serious cuddy for protection, note also the pedestal winches - the actual winches are astonishing - huge!
Most noticeable is the dreadnought bow, and the chines - bro in law sent us a video the other day of her doing 12 knots on a training session (we thought it was a motor boat he was on!) but he tells us the chines work like a dream, deflecting water sideways rather than up, but also a huge stabilising influence when she's planing...
 |
| Ignore the green stuff on the bowsprit - they were prettifying before she came out of the water later that afternoon for vinyl wrapping prior to a visit to Southampton Boat Show |
As I say she was coming out of the water that afternoon for vinyl wrapping - I think she'll end up looking like the picture on the Race website..
 |
| Piccie courtesy Clipper |
Final amazement was the standing rigging - 14mm! So strong that the rig tension is completed by hydraulically lifting the whole mast to get the tension into it - the eye bolts are so huge you cannot manually tighten them enough. Once the tension is on they have shims they can then slide under the mast foot. He told us that they replace the standing rigging on each and every boat in the race after the race has finished...
Stunning boat - fantastic day - and a pint and a pickled egg after, what's not to like! 😁