Welcome to “Clipper Corner!”

As a member of Astoria Yacht Club, I am sharing my Clipper Race experience via the club’s monthly newsletter, The Bitter End. I thought it would be fun to share the newsletter contributions here on my website as well, as others might find them interesting! Cheers!

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January 2025: Introduction

Welcome to Clipper Corner! Clipper Corner will be a dedicated space in each edition of The Bitter End while AYC member Heidi Brown embarks upon the Clipper Round the World sailing race in August 2025 through July 2026.

Heidi has been a member of AYC since. She moved to Astoria in 2020. She formerly sailed S/V Spar Trek, a 1980 Express 27 (hull #4) designed by Carl Schumacher with others in the club. Heidi has been sailing since 2018 and grew up in Juneau, Alaska fishing the waters of the Inside Passage and started driving power boats at age 9. As Heidi describes it, “Being on (not in) the water is truly my happy place.”

Clipper Round the World is the brainchild of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968-1969.  The first Clipper Race took place in 1996. Clipper Round the World is the only race in the world where the organizers supply a fleet of identical 70’ ocean racing yachts (eleven), each with a fully qualified skipper and first mate to safely guide the crew on the 40,000 nautical mile journey around the world. Every crew member (regardless of sailing experience) must complete four levels of intense ocean racer training before they compete.

Heidi has now completed 3 of the 4 required trainings for the Clipper 2025-2026 Race that will begin August 31, 2025. Her fourth and final training will take place May 2025, shortly after she and all the other racers find out their team, skipper, and yacht assignments.

The race begins and ends in Portsmouth, England. (this is also where training takes place.) The route is divided into eight legs and between 13 and 16 individual races including six ocean crossings. Participants can choose to complete the full circumnavigation or select one or multiple legs. For Heidi, “It was never a matter of which legs. I always knew I wanted to complete the full circumnavigation.”

In the next Clipper Corner, we’ll hear from Heidi, in her voice, what the training sessions have been like; what life is like on a 70’ racing yacht; and a bit more about the various roles needed to make an ocean racing crew a high-functioning team.