Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Homecoming

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is the world's longest ocean race. It's also the only global race crewed by amateurs. Instead of pro sailors, the international crews are made up of taxi drivers, chief executives, students, rugby players and housewives, some of them with no previous sailing experience at all. Each boat has a different sponsor but other than that they are identical and every team has the same budget. The scoring system is similar to Formula 1, with points awarded for a total of 16 individual races over an eleven month period. Having left New York in early June for the fourteenth race, the boats are currently speeding along somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, heading for Derry. After that there are only two races left before their grand homecoming on Saturday July 12.  The twelve teams will celebrate the end of their 40,000-mile circumnavigation with a victory parade of the 70-foot yachts up the Thames to Tower Bridge. There will be music, drummers, dancing at St Katherine Docks and a formal prize-giving ceremony from 1.30pm until 3pm. The procession of boats promises to be spectacular; timings to watch the yachts go by are as follows: 10.19am at the QE2 Bridge at Dartford; 11.48am at the Thames Barrier; 12.01pm at 02 Arena, 12.12pm passing Greenwich;  12.30pm at Canary Wharf Pier and  at 12.45pm St Katherine Docks.