No Going Back

Meet the crew who will be pushed to their limits as they compete in the Clipper Race and the adventure challenge of a lifetime. Led by an elite lineup of Skippers, crew will battle everything Mother Nature throws their way as they learn to live on board a stripped back ocean racing yacht.

After a month at sea, round-the-world crew are settling into life on board, but the relentlessness of ocean racing continues to test their mental and physical fortitude.

It’s a Christmas with a difference as the crew swap family for crewmates and spend the festive season at sea. This is no holiday cruise though – as when the teams race around Australia they venture to the southernmost latitudes of the 40,000 nautical mile route. Here they experience cold temperatures and tough conditions. Huge rolling swells, strong winds and fast, downwind sailing become a daily occurrence.

With many long stages in their logbooks, the event moves to two short sprints between Vietnam and China. It’s here we meet three circumnavigators with three very different reasons to race – a videographer living on board behind the lens, a technology manager wanting to break away from her steady, normal life and a student chosen to sail around the world whilst representing his home city of Qingdao. Then it’s back to ocean racing and THE BIG ONE – the North Pacific crossing. This challenge is one of the main reasons many crew sign up to compete on the Clipper Race as it is the only round the world sailing event to feature this relentless and vast ocean. These waters are so remote that the closest other humans to the crew are the astronauts in the International Space Station.

Two legs to go but still 10,000 nautical miles left for the crew to race. As temperatures rise on the long race towards Panama and up through the Caribbean, all points matter as the teams battle towards each hotly contested Finish Line. With the close of the circumnavigation in sight, emotions are running high. Which team will be crowned Clipper 2025-26 Race Champions and how will the 100 intrepid circumnavigators feel as their rollercoaster sailing adventure comes to an end?