The Clipper Round the World Race, which kicked off last year in London, has nearly completed circling the globe.
Crews have raced down the Atlantic, across to the Horn of Africa, down under Australia and up through Southeast Asia, and then, with a harrowing passage across the Pacific, which saw the second death of the race, the crews ran down the West Coast of the United States and then across the Caribbean to New York.
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Now the first boats are in from the sea, and it’s ClipperTelemed+ out front to win Race 11 The LMAX Exchange – Race of The Americas. The win marks the crew’s first overall and second podium of the series.
Skipper Matt Mitchell and his crew crossed the finish line at 14:42 Coordinated Universal Time June 9 after fighting to overtake Garmin throughout the night. The crew beat its rival in the race from Panama by nine nautical miles. Coming in third was Visit Seattle, arriving at 19:19.
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But for a while, it seemed Great Britain would win, but that boat came in fourth, and LMAX Exchange, the boat for which this leg of the circumnavigation race is named, incurred a 70 minute penalty after sailing into the 12-mile exclusion zone around Haiti, which was prohibited in the race rules.
Mitchell and his crew were due into Liberty Landing, New Jersey, around 6 p.m. local time June 10 following the motorsail from the finish line to the marina.
The crews will set out for their final race from new Jersey across the Atlantic and back to London June 20.
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Photo credit: Clipper Round the World Race
