1977–1978 Whitbread Round the World Race

The 1977–78 Whitbread Round the World Race was the second edition of the around-the-world sailing event Whitbread Round the World Race. On 27 August 1977, 15 boats started out from Southampton for the Whitbread Round the World Race under gale-force winds and driving rain.[1] Most of the second Whitbread Race was dominated by a tight race between Swan 65 King's Legend and Flyer, the latter eventually winning the race. All 15 boats finished the 26,780-nautical-mile (49,600 km) race. Great Britain II was winner on elapsed time for the second race in succession. This race was notable for the fact that Clare Francis became the first woman to skipper a Whitbread entry, the Swan 65 ADC Accutrac.[2]

Legs

Leg	Start	Finish	Leg winner elapsed time	Leg winner corrected time
1	Southampton, England	Cape Town, South Africa	Flyer	Flyer[3]
2	Cape Town, South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Heath's Condor	33 Export
3	Auckland, New Zealand	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Great Britain II	Gauloise II
4	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Southampton, England	Heath's Condor	Gauloise II

Final standings

Pos	Boat name	Skipper	Country	Time
1	Flyer	Conny van Rietschoten	Netherlands	119 d 1 h
2	King's Legend	Nick Ratcliffe & Mike Clancy	Great Britain	121 d 11 h
3	Traité de Rome	Philippe Hanin	EU	121 d 18 h
4	Disque d’Or	Pierre Fehlmann	Switzerland	122 d 10 h
5	Adc Accutrac	Clare Francis	Great Britain	126 d 20 h
6	Gauloises II	Eric Loizeau	France	127 d 7 h
7	Adventure	James Watts, David Leslie, Ian Bailey-Willmot & Robin Duchesne	Great Britain	128 d 2 h
8	Neptune	Bernard Deguy	France	130 d 11 h
9	B&B Italia	Corrado Di Majo	Italy	132 d 2 h
10	33 Export	Alain Gabbay	France	133 d 0 h 31 m
11	Tielsa	Dirk Nauta	Netherlands	133 d 0 h 36 m
12	Great Britain II	Rob James	Great Britain	134 d 10 h
13	Debenhams	John Ridgway	Great Britain	135 d 19 h
14	Japy-Hermes	Jean Michel Viant	France	143 d 6 h
15	Heath's Condor	Leslie Williams & Robin Knox-Johnston	Great Britain	144 d 0 h

References

1. "Cruising World". January 1977.
2. "Race stats" (PDF). volvooceanrace.com. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
3. "Dutch ketch leads yachts". The Spokesman-Review. 6 October 1977.

External links

• [* History]