Four sailors from the South Coast — including two from the Isle of Wight — have been appointed to lead teams around the globe in the upcoming Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Islanders Josh Stickland, 35, and Max Rivers, 29, will join Southampton based James Finney, 28, and Portsmouth's Mike Miller, 54, after the quartet were chosen following a gruelling selection process.
The sailors join seven other skippers from the UK, South Africa, Uruguay and the Netherlands who will be responsible for forming teams of amateur sailors and safely leading them as they race 40,000 around the globe on the upcoming Clipper 2023-24 Race.
The global yacht race sees adventurers from all walks of life take on the exceptional challenge of racing across the world’s oceans on board a 70ft yacht.
James, Josh, Max and Mike are no strangers to the Clipper Race.
Mike and Josh were both skippers during the previous edition of the biennial event, and both James and Max were supporting skippers as First Mates and are stepping up to lead a team for the first time.
For Josh Stickland (below), who first took to the water aged 10, it was with the Prince’s Trust and UKSA’s support that he qualified as a Watersports Instructor, then a professional sailor.
Josh Strickland
He has never looked back since — logging more than 150,000 nautical miles during his career to date.
He said:
“The vast conditions keep you on your toes — in the South Atlantic we had 86 knot (98mph) wind speed creep up on us in a matter of hours.
"As the skipper, you need to be as positive as possible - you don’t have to have that in any other sailing role. Your morale makes a real difference every single day.”
Max Rivers (below), who has a wealth of sailing experience and a degree in Adventure Education, has been sailing since the age of 13.
"Three Zinger Tower meals and a bowl of curly fries please..."
As Clipper Race First Mate, his team - GoToBermuda - managed to secure three podium positions during the last six races of the 2019-20 edition.
He says he's looking to exceed this for the new season:
“I think setting that culture early on is so important.
"The culture that we race hard and race well. But also, that we work for each other, and we look after one another.”
All eleven Skippers are now based at Clipper Race HQ in Gosport, UK, with weeks of intensive training and team formation ahead before the Clipper 2023-24 Race gets underway this summer.
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