Clipper Round-world Yachts Set Sail for Qingdao

Fleet of the 2011-2012 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race set sail for Qingdao on Saturday after a week-long stopover at Singapore. The fleet set sail on Saturday morning from the Marina at Keppel Bay for the 8th race of the round-the-world-trip. The route from Singapore to China's northern coastal city of Qingdao, which has been known as a city of sailing since the Summer Olympics in 2008, is 2,580 miles (4,128 kilometers). It is expected to take around 20 days. The race will be challenging as it started in the tropical heat and light headwinds and then, as it goes north, the weather turns colder, the winds come from directly ahead and the sea state kicks up to deliver a real challenge, organizers said. The fleet arrived in Singapore on Jan. 28. The yacht Gold Coast Australia won the 4,600-mile (7,360-kilometer) Race 7 from Australia to Singapore, which is the first part of the 5th leg of the trip around the globe. It was 79 minutes ahead of runner-up Derry-Londonderry. Geraldton Western Australia finished the race by arriving in Batam on Monday in the third position, followed by Qingdao and Singapore in the fourth and fifth places, respectively. The Singapore yacht, sponsored by the world's largest rig builder Keppel Corporation, sailed into the Keppel Bay on Saturday morning to the applause of Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and a large crowd. It was a disappointing result for the Finnish boat Visit Finland, which finished in the eighth place out of ten. The team had appeared on the podium four times in the previous six races. Ian Conchie, the British skipper of the boat Qingdao, has said that his team got "every incentive" to do their best in the race towards its home port of Qingdao. "We've got the speed in the boat. We are just gonna work hard as a team, bring it all together, and try and pull it to Qingdao," he said. Qu Zhiguo, a Chinese sailor on the boat, has said that he was hoping for a good result on the race from Singapore to Qingdao, too. "We will be expecting headwinds most of the time. So the speed is going to be fast. It is going to be challenging," he said. The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is known for the world's longest route at about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers), with 15 races on 8 legs. The fleet sailed from Southampton in the United Kingdom in late July last year and is expected to return to Britain in July this year.