Clipper Round the World Yacht Race named Event of the Year at prestigious British Yachting Awards

Headquartered in Gosport, it’s an award that will take pride of place for the Clipper Race after the organisation took the top spot in the events category against some of the industry’s global leaders.

The award, which commends the events which celebrate the sport of sailing, saw the Clipper Race go up against the likes of global household names such as Sail GP and the Vendée Globe.

With the Clipper Race now in its 30th year of operation, the readers of Sailing Today with Yachts and Yachting, commended the biennial event for its work in attracting new enthusiasts into the world of sailing.

Many of the Race Crew taking part in this epic adventure have no prior sailing experience. They take on an intensive compulsory four-stage training programme before going on to tackle some of the most challenging conditions that Mother Nature can serve up, from freezing temperatures and 40-foot waves to the blistering heat and flat calms of the tropics.

Currently partway through its next lap of the globe, the Clipper Race left its local waters of Portsmouth on 31 August. The fleet of ten ocean racing yachts, crewed by nearly 200 everyday people per leg and including South Coast locals, is now racing across the Roaring Forties as it heads towards Fremantle, Australia, a challenging part of its 40,000nm route.

Clipper Race’s Founder and Chairman, and Portsmouth resident, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, said: “Being named Event of the Year is an incredible honour for the Clipper Race. This award celebrates the courage, teamwork, and spirit of adventure that the Clipper Race still embodies, thirty years on from our event’s formation. From our Race Crew, professional sailors and our organising team behind the scenes, this recognition reflects exactly what makes the Clipper Race special to so many in the industry.”

Sam Jefferson, editor of Sailing Today said: “The British Yachting Awards are voted for by the readers of Sailing Today with Yachts and Yachting, and they know a thing or two about sailing. It is therefore the highest compliment the yachting public can pay to the Clipper Race by voting for the race as Event of the Year. It is public recognition of the huge and important role the race has played in introducing newcomers to the thrills and spills of ocean racing.

The 2025-26 edition is broken down into eight legs and Race Crew can take on any combination of one, through to all eight legs - making them circumnavigators. On this edition, the race will stop in Puerto Sherry (Spain), Punta del Este (Uruguay), Cape Town (South Africa), Fremantle and Airlie Beach (Australia), Subic Bay (Philippines), Qingdao (China), Tongyeong City (Korea), Seattle (USA), Panama, Washington, DC (USA) and Oban (UK) before returning to Portsmouth on July 27 2026.