Helly Hansen Sailor of the Month – August: Richard Clarke
Aug 22, 2019
Richard Clarke
It’s been a busy year for Richard Clarke aboard Wizard, the Volvo Ocean 70 that has just won the Fastnet Challenge Cup, the overall prize for the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race. The Fastnet Race is considered to be the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s pinnacle 600 mile offshore. Richard was also part of the team that crewed Wizard to first place finishes in both the Transatlantic Race in July and the RORC Caribbean 600 in February.
Wizard, an American Volvo Ocean 70 is owned by David and Peter Askew, brothers based in the Baltimore area. This win brings an end to a 5-year run of French winners at the Rolex Fastnet Race. After the purchase of Wizard, they decided to load it up with a masterful crew consisting of Volvo Ocean Race skipper Charlie Enright and his business partner Mark Towill with who he’d run two VOR campaigns, Richard and Rob Greenhalgh who have won the Volvo Ocean race and Will Oxley, a renown Australian Navigator.
“[Our winning streak] can’t last forever – you just try to make it last as long as you can. That being said, we definitely have a formula. We decide what we want to do and then find the right machine and the right people to get it done.” – David Askew
Richard Clarke is a 5-time Canadian Olympian, having competed in the Finn in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 and making his 5th appearance at the Games in the Star with Tyler Bjorn in 2012. Richard was the Sail Canada Male Athlete of the year in 1993 and Sailor of the Year in 1999. Richard is not newcomer to offshore racing either, having won the 2001/2002 Volvo Ocean Race aboard Illbruck and taking home the Gerry Roufs Trophy for achievement in international Offshore Racing the same year.
Congratulations to our Sailor of the Month – Richard Clarke
Sail Canada’s Sailor of the Month award acknowledges sailing achievements by Canadians involved or associated with the sport in all its forms. Sail Canada encourages the submission of noteworthy Canadian sailing activities to sailorofthemonth@sailing.ca
