Team Singapore sails into top 4

SINGAPORE sailors have caught up with the leaders after a poor start in a round-the-world yacht race.

THE GREAT SINGAPORE SAIL: On a high now after catching up with the leading yachts, the Singapore clipper crew takes a breather while doing last-minute checks at Cascais in Portugal yesterday before sailing for Salvador in Brazil on the second leg of the 10-month race.

Forty-eight hours after setting sail from Liverpool, England, they were trailing last.

But five days later, when the first leg of the race ended in Portugal, they had left six other teams behind to come in fourth.

Team member David Beevers said: 'The whole team is on a real high. We had a really bad start because when we hit the Irish Sea, more than half the team became sea-sick.'

They had never been at sea for more than two days at a stretch before the race, he added. He was speaking to The Straits Times from Portugal yesterday, just hours before he was due to set off again.

The Clipper 05-06 race will take competitors 50,000km around the world with stops in South Africa, Australia, China, Japan and Singapore.

Mr Beevers, a 45-year-old Singapore permanent resident, quit his job as the senior director of business operations at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre and paid $94,000 to join the race.

'The voyage from Liverpool to Portugal took us seven days,' he said.
It was seven days with no showers - just baby wipes - food out of tins, and no more than six hours of sleep at a stretch.

Mr Beevers, who used to race boats professionally about 25 years ago, said that sharing a small space with up to 18 people is also not easy. 'It's very stressful and we all have our moods, and ups and downs.'

Singapore has a team of 38 crew members, some of whom will be replacing others during the 10-month race.

Karamjit Kaur
The Straits Times Interactive, 29 September 2005