Last week I was notified that The Clipper 2022/23 race has been postponed for a year due to COVID. It will now start in August 2023. The 2019/20 race was postponed mid-race due to COVID and hasn’t yet restarted. These delays and the time needed to refit the boats between circumnavigations has had a knock on effect. Although the delay is a shame, COVID has affected and continues to affect so many more people in much more significant ways, so I just need think ahead and adjust my plans to make the most out of the situation. It will mean that I will no longer be the youngest person to circumnavigate with Clipper (the youngest person to date was 18 and 9 months when the race started and I will now be 19 and a couple of weeks). I am not disappointed by this as it was never my aim to be the youngest; initially it wasn’t even my aim to circumnavigate. When I initially heard about the Clipper I never thought I would be able to fund even one leg, and do not underestimate the challenge for my parents and Grandad to raise the funds for training and the 2 legs I initially signed up for. However, the more I learnt about it the bigger my ambitions grew and I have become increasingly determined to seek sponsorship to complete the circumnavigation.
I will finish my BTEC Sport and Exercise Science in June 2022 and was intending to start the Clipper just a few weeks later. I am now planning on using the interim year to look for as many opportunities as possible to increase my knowledge and experience of yacht sailing. If you are reading this and know anybody who needs crew please do get in contact ellahebron@icloud.com. My current plan is to continue working part-time as a dinghy instructor until October 2022, but this will stop over the winter months, and as I will be 18 my then, I will be able to explore work opportunities overseas. The extra year until the start of the Clipper Race will also give me time to seek additional sponsorship.
Since I signed up for the Clipper I am delighted to say that I have received sponsorship from an individual and 2 companies that have enabled me to sign up for a 3rd leg. Because the cost of the circumnavigation is less than taking all legs individually this means I have now raised half of the funds that I need to circumnavigate! Two of my sponsors have asked to remain anonymous. The third sponsor is a Turkish company called Arçelik. I came across Arçelik when I was researching the effects of microplastics in our oceans as they manufacture a washing machine that filters microplastics and stops them from entering our water systems. There are other solutions such as ‘Guppy Friend bags that you can put your clothes in before washing, or balls that you can add to your wash to capture the microplastics (which you need to pick out of after each wash). These options require extra effort and I suspect won’t be adopted by the majority, so making filters mandatory in washing machines of the future may be a more impactful solution longer term. You can find out more about microplastics and things that you can do to help here.
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