Sailing legends float racing partnership

SAILING legends Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Dame Ellen MacArthur have launched a partnership between Sir Robin’s Clipper Round The World Yacht Race and Dame Ellen’s charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust.

By The Newsroom

Published 18th Oct 2012, 07:00 BST

The deal will see a young person recovering from cancer take a berth aboard one of the clipper yachts during the race across the Atlantic to Brazil next year, while the trust will also be the official charity for the race.

Two boats from Yorkshire gave creditable performances in the last two stagings of the biennial amateur yachting challenge – Hull and Humber in 2009/10 when the race started and ended in Hull – and Welcome to Yorkshire in 2011/12.

Sir Robin was the first person to sail solo, non-stop around the globe and founded the clipper race to give people from all walks of life a chance to experience the thrills of ocean racing.

Dame Ellen shot to fame in 2005 when she broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the world, a record she held for three years.