The Boats and life on board

The boats are stripped down 68-foot racing yachts, built for speed - not comfort!

They have open decks and coffee-grinder winches to help operate the heaviest of the sails.

Each boat has an identical set of ten sails, including spinnakers bigger than a tennis court!

It’s all about teamwork – not much on board gets done without it.

The day is split into two 6hr shifts during daylight hours and three 4hr shifts during the night, which is covered by three watch's, so you are guaranteed to work 10 hours in any one 24 hour period, with all crew on deck for big sail changes.

Roles on board include:
Helm- the driver.
Bowman- the brave one.
Trimmer- the instinctive one with a feel for the boat and wind.
Sail repairer- who has tireless attention to detail.
Medic- the person who puts us back together.
Mother/victualler- our floating restaurant.

Bread is baked fresh every day and one person takes on the role of mother each day, to clean the boat and to feed the entire crew.

Donna goes round the world.

In September 2007, my husband Ian, a keen sailor, died at the age of 33. We had married in 2006 and during our 6 years together Ian had introduced me to all fun things water based, including sailing.

Following Ian’s death, with the help of many friends and family I immersed myself in sailing, a sport which I had come to love. During this time out on the water, I found I had time to reflect on how lucky I had been to be with Ian, who bought a glow into both mine, family and friends lives.

I also realised how important it was to me to have a long-term goal, and if at possible achieve that goal by doing something I loved, and I knew after reading about the Clipper race I had found that goal, to compete in a personal and team challenge to circumnavigate the world!

Ian had a saying, and its something I live up to this day, Go Big or go Home! So by partaking in the Clipper Race, as a Round the Worlder I will certainly be going Big, and I certainly wont be going home until we sail in to Hull in July 2010 after 35,000 miles of ocean racing!

Dx