Ropes - Clipper Round the World Race - Journal: Level I and II - Clipper Race Training

This is, more or less, a translation of my first post in the Hebrew blog. The English blog will include translation of the Hebrew posts, however I'll probably won't be able to translate all. Also, I promise to write some posts exclusively in English.

Resting

One week (and one day to the English version), since I returned from Britain and at last I found the strength to write. I did plan also to go for a swim this Sunday but haven't done even a single training till this day.

It is probably an energy drop after completing both level one and two of the training for the Clipper Round the World Race and in short Clipper Race.

I'm writing this blog first of all for myself, however I hope that it will give help other readers to get some insight into the race that will take place in the years 2023/24.

Training conclusion

I took both level 1 and level 2 trainings back to back in order to save a bit of money and allot of time. Each training is very intensive, both physically and mentally.

In the next posts, I'll publish some experiences, thoughts and insights. However they won't be ordered chronologically or by training level. The objective of this conclusion is to give a context to the next posts:

Level I

In the level I training, we got acquainted with the yacht, a previous version of the racing yachts (the current yachts are completing the race in the pacific ocean as I write this post). These yachts are 68 fit long (around 21 meters). In this level, there is actually an advantage to crew members with none or little experience at yachting. We, the more "experienced" skippers mainly studied to get rid of the "bad habbits" of operating the small yachts. These habits either won't work on the bigger yachts and, worse, are less safer and can cause injuries to ourselves or others. Totally in this week (or actually six day and five nights), we sailed around 100 miles. At nights we docked mostly at the Gosport marina, home of the clipper race offices, One nights we docked in the Cowes marina at the Isle of Wight.

Level II

At the end of level I, we learnt that one of the level II skippers was found positive to the corona virus. As a result, while in level I we sailed on two yachts with a crew of ten students and two instructors (the skipper and additional qualified person as they call in in clipper race), in level I, we experienced "the real thing": a crew of seventeen students and two instructors.

The second level start with a sea survival course (in a heated swimming pool😉) and continues with four days and three nights on the sea. Watches of 24 hours a day, almost like in the real race. The main objective of this race was to experience 24 hours sailing, however we also deepened our knowledge in sailing and even though it was not in the syllabus, we hoisted the Jeniker.

And now for the pictures...

I would like to thanks Ziv Halevi for taking the pictures. Without him, I wouldn't allot of images from the training themselves. Ziv has an blog in Hebrew.