The STS Mir

The Russian A-class vessel, MIR (russian: Мир, meaning World or Peace) is a three-masted, full rigged sail training ship, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was built in 1987 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.  Mir is the second largest of six sister ships designed by Zygmunt Choreń and is operated by the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy in St Petersburg with a permanent crew of between 70 and 144 cadets. 

The STV Kaliakra

The Kaliakra is a Barquentine vessel built in 1984 at the Gdasnk shipyard in Poland.  She is the property of the Bulgarian Maritime Training Centre and operates from her home port of Varnia in Bulgaria.  She is one of the fastest tall ships in the world and regularly takes place in the Tall Ships Race with her crew made of of permanent seamen and a contingent of trainees from countries all over the world. She is believed to be a replica of a similar boat bearing the same name that sailed before the 1st World War.

The STS Lord Nelson

The Lord Nelson is a class A tall ship.  The keel for the Lord Nelson was laid in 1984 in Wivenhoe (Essex) on behalf of the current owners, the Jubilee Sailing Trust.  She was launched a year later and moved to Southampton and then to the Isle of Wight for the remaining work to be carried out.  Along with her sister ship SV Tenacious, they are the only boats in the world that are designed to allow disabled and able bodied crew to sail side by side and take on an equally active role.

STS Lord Nelson Specification

The Clipper Dubois 68 Fleet

The fleet of 10 racing yachts are designed by Dubois Naval Architects specifically for Clipper Ventures.  Ed Dubois has been designing and sailing race winning yachts since 1976.  They are of monohull design with a composite sandwich construction that is made from two layers of glass fibre with a layer of balsa wood in between.  This makes them both strong and light.  In fact although they are 8 foot longer than the previous Clipper 60's designed by David Pederick, they are three tonnes lighter.

The construction of the boats is an international as the race itself with the hulls built in Shanghai, the rigging and sails come from South Africa. The yachts are built to the latest Maritime and Coastguard Agency construction and safety requirements - coded to MCA Category 0.

Each boat is sponsored by an international city and this page will be regularly updated to show the latest information on boats sponsors, skippers and crew (showing their respective 'legs' in brackets). 

Team Finland Crew

Skipper Eero Lehtinen from Cape Town (Legs 1-3).  Rob McInally (pictured) from Southampton (Legs 3-7).  RTW Crew - Pauline Charlwood, Mark Cole, Minke Docter, Frank Gerritsen, Rachel Gibbs, Andy Milner, Andrew Phillips, Hans Sleutjes, Emil Vartiainen and Evie Watt.  Remaining Crew - Barry Anderson (1-3), John Evans (1-3), Simone Gross (1 & 2), Nikola Brbora (1), Noemi Lopez Gonzales (1), Andreas Sailler (1), Mark Varney (1), Ann Williams (2 & 3), Michael Yeomans (2), Paul Glasgow (3 & 4), Christopher King (3), Rebecca Marks (3 & 4), Sandy Paskins (3), Caroline Slootweg (4-6), Tony Allen (4 & 5), Christopher Carnell (4), Christel Townley (4), Dirk Van Daele (4), Ian Farrer (5-7), Martine Duma (5), Alison Chabernaud (6 & 7), Lizzie Whewell (6 & 7), Carole Crane (6), Catherine Donaldson (6), Colin Keevil (6), John Beattie (1 & 7), Nigel Dewer Gibb, (7) Martin Morgan (7) and Anna Soisalo (7).

Clipper 68 Specification

Sails

Other Systems

Engine

The engine is a Perkins M130C 6 cylinder 130hp naturally aspirated diesel engine.

Generator

The generator is driven by an Onan MDKUB 2 cylinder intercooled engine, giving 5.5kW at 240VAC. This feeds the battery banks, which in turn provide 12V and 24V DC outputs to drive all the boat’s electrical system.

The generator provides the heat for the calorifier, which gives hot, fresh water.

There is an inverter which gives 1500W to 240 VAC 3 pin sockets.

Fuel

The yacht has 4 diesel tanks, two of 400 litres and two of 340 litres, giving a total of 1480 litres. This gives about 1500 miles range at the economical cruising speed of 7.5kts at 1800 rpm (approximately 7 litres/hour).

Water

There are 4 types of water on board:

(i) Fresh water for drinking. This is stored in 4 tanks, each holding 195 litres, giving a total of 780 litres. 18 people at 4 litres per day use 72 litres, so this is just over 10 days’ supply;

(ii) Grey water. This is non-sewage waste, i.e. sinks and shower trays. There are two grey water tanks – 130 litres on the starboard side and 195 litres on the port side;

(iii) Black water. This is sewage, directly from the heads. When in open water this is pumped directly overboard, but in certain coastal regions the black tanks (112 litres on starboard, 130 litres on port) have to be used, and then pumped out when alongside into dedicated disposal facilities;

(iv) Raw water. This is seawater, which is drawn in to cool the engine and the generator, and to provide the input to the watermaker.

Watermaker

The watermaker is a Livol D30 model which is a low power electrically driven version giving 30 litres per hour of fresh water from an input of 350 litres per hour of raw water and taking 4 Amps off the 24V system. This allows the watermaker to be run while the generator is off which is a great advantage.

The watermaker is effectively a very fine filtering device allowing nothing larger than water molecules through. As such it gives very pure water although this may taste strange at first.