CLIPPER RACE 2025/26 – WELCOME TO OUR MEDIA HUB FOR THIS YEAR’S RACE

Welcome to the first blog from our MARLOW CLIPPER RACE AMBASSADOR: Jorden Lacey. Over the coming months JT will share his experience on board Team Warrant, as they circumnavigator the globe. In the first he tells us how he his journey started before sitting on the start line of the 2025-26 edition.

A Novice Sailor Tackling a 40,000NM Journey

Finding time to sit on board a Clipper 70 in Gunwharf Quays to reflect on the journey that brought me here, when we now have a little less than 5 hours before the start of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2025-26, was always going to be a little bit challenging!

I’m JT, a prospective circumnavigator in the 14th edition of the race which started some 30 years ago as an opportunity for novice sailors to participate in competitive ocean sailing and to experience the challenges of forming a crew that will face and have to tackle an arduous 40,000 NM+ over 11 months.

My own journey started some 30 years ago as well when I learned of and spoke to a crew member on the Whitbread Race. As a child with no sailing background in the family the idea that someone could sail the oceans, see and experience the remotest parts of the globe was thrilling, but seemed like an impossibility for my own life.

About 10 years later, while studying in London, I saw the Clipper Race 50/50 posters in the underground – a simple concept featuring the faces of crew and contrasting their day-to-day job with the reality of being an ocean racer. When I realised that these were novice sailors, my mind was resolved to find a way to compete in the race.

Training & Prepping

I witnessed friends participate in a race edition about 10 years ago, and eventually an opportunity opened for me and I confirmed my place in October 2024.

Since then all crews have been through 4 levels of training, and have spent the past few weeks prepping our boat (CV29 / Team Warrant) including re-rigging with new Marlow lines and Hyde sails, servicing winches and jammers and undertaking additional training which have included bosun duties and media to name a few.

Earlier this week, the circumnavigators and the Leg 1 crew left Gosport for a practice parade, and a sail and fleet photoshoot – enjoying 25-30 knot winds and some dramatic action out in the Solent! By the time we got to Gunwharf Quays, there was a sense of nervous impatience and a desire to get the race underway!

The past few days have been a bit of a blur with final prep and briefings, crew stowing their personal possessions and trying hard not to trip over each other in the process. Leg 1 is a busy leg with 20 crew on board, and after race start we will quickly move into our watch rotation.

We have had our naming ceremony, met our sponsors Warrant Logistics, taken family and friends on tours of the boat, had team photos on board and will shortly head up to the main stage for an introduction to the crowds in Gunwharf before heading back down to the pontoon. When we slip lines later this afternoon for the parade of sail and race start just off Southsea, it will be the last time we see these waters for almost a year.

A New Endeavour

I’m honoured to be Marlow Ropes’ ambassador on the race, and I’m excited about what I’m about to undertake, but with perhaps a healthy dose of apprehension. While I have some sailing experience in the Solent and Channel, crossing oceans is a new endeavour!

With the support of my pro crew, Dylan and Jade, and that of my fellow circumnavigators and crewmates, I’m ready to set off, learn new skills and more about myself not just as a sailor, but who I am as a person.

I don’t know what life will have in store for me on my return, but I do know it will be very different from the life I had up until this day …

I’m looking forward to sharing updates with you all as the race progresses!

JT

31 AUG 2025

Follow the race here: https://clipperroundtheworld.geovoile.com/2025/tracker/