My mate Ian's round the world race with Clipper Ventures…...

[Giles]

The first of the "real" legs is underway. Madeira to Rio.  Ian is in 4th atm, but with 3,500 miles to go it barely matters at this point

[Giles]

On the second leg now.  Ian is currently in 5th on this leg….

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/follow/race-viewer/

[jimmy]

placing is pretty miss leading at this point as they're all still pretty neck to neck. Exciting

[Giles]

And in the middle of the doldrums…..

[Giles]

So the Rio to Cape Town leg has started.

Ian is curretly in third place on this leg.

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/follow/race-viewer/

G

[Giles]

Sporting the forum Tee in Rio…..

[rocket]

cool, well done Ian

[Giles]

And currently in second - COME ON IAN,,,,,,,,,

[jimmy]

@Giles:

And currently in second - COME ON IAN,,,,,,,,,

keep that up they can really use the gate points.

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/follow/race-viewer/

[Giles]

Good point Jimmy.  At least one of the teams bust spinnaker poles last night.  There is a 4 point deduction for that…..

[jimmy]

why would you get point penalties for that? isn't the incident alone enough of a penalty?

[Giles]

The point penalty is a great idea.

If you know you can get a "free" replacement sail/pole/halyard at the next port of call, you will tend to push the boat (and the crew) too hard.  The race is designed so that the all round best skipper/team win, someone who can race fast but safe…..I think that it is a great rule and encourages good behaviour, remember these crews have never really sailed before, and indeed in Ian's case, he had hardly sailed outside on British waters until 5 weeks ago....

[jimmy]

makes perfect sense

[Giles]

Random pics of Ian's race so far

[Seul]

Just when I was glad that Finn wasn't posting dizzying crane-shorts anymore… 

[Giles]

Not great res. but how's about this one….....?

[rocket]

nice…

[Seul]

DEAR  G O D  MAN!.. 

[Giles]

And what he was up to last night…..

_Ian has also taken advantage of the conditions to attempt to sort out the team's wind instruments which involved a trip up the 89-foot mast.

He said he was not able to repair them in the sea state, so they are waiting for calmer conditions to try again._

[Seul]

I very relunctantly looked up what 89 feet equals to in metres: 27…

I guess next time when my collegues ask me to climb on the op of the cooling cell (about 2.5 metres high), I'll think about Ian climbing a 30 fecking metres high mast WHILST SAILING ON A SEA and suck it up...