From Clipper Ventures website…
Clipper Ventures has announced that the restart date for the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race will be Saturday 25th March 2006. Arrangements are now being made to fly crew back to the Philippines for Race 6 from Subic Bay to Qingdao in China.
After planning a detailed work schedule for the fleet with Green Marine, who are project managing the repair, the 25th was selected as the first date by which all the work could be completed to Clipper’s satisfaction, the boats re-launched, fully tested, surveyed and prepared for the race restart.
The Race Team recommend that crew return to Subic Bay the weekend prior to the Restart (18-19 March).
Given the length of the delay in the Philippines, the stops in Yokohama, Japan and Curacao in the Caribbean have been removed from the route to accommodate a more stream-lined race programme. Whilst the fleet will now sail direct from Qingdao in China to Victoria in Canada, the Caribbean stopover has been changed from Curacao to Jamaica, in an attempt to cut down the length of time the fleet will spend in the Caribbean during the hurricane season.
The fleet was diverted on 5th February due to keel problems and a survey identified an issue with the connection between the outer skin of the hull and the keel. With a team of around 90 people working on the fleet, amounting to around 1000 daily man hours, good progress is being made.