Clipper Ventures has announced that the restart date for the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race will be Saturday 25th March 2006.

The fleet was diverted on 5th February due to keel problems and a survey
identified an issue with the connection between the outer skin of the hull
and the keel. With a team of around 90 people working on the fleet,
amounting to around 1000 daily man hours, good progress is being made.
Clipper Ventures took the decision to fly crew home for the duration of
the stop-over or to pay living expenses to those crew members who wished
to stay in the Philippines. With the re-start date now set, crew will be
returning on March 18 – 19.

Given the length of the delay in the Philippines, the stops in Yokohama,
Japan and Curacao in the Caribbean have been removed from the route to
accommodate a more stream-lined race programme. Whilst the fleet will now
sail direct from Qingdao in China to Victoria in Canada, the Caribbean
stopover has been changed from Curacao to Jamaica, in an attempt to cut
down the length of time the fleet will spend in the Caribbean during the
hurricane season.