59° North Sailingvideo
Richard Clarke // Canadian Sailing Legend
6 May 2025 · 1h 15m · 216 views
What this video covers
Richard Clarke, raised on Toronto Island and sailing since age four, competed in four consecutive Olympic Games in the Finn class for Team Canada before building a career that included a Volvo Ocean Race win, four broken 24-hour distance records, and both the Transatlantic and Transpac records.6:00 The conversation, hosted by Nikki Henderson on the On The Wind podcast, covers Clarke's full arc from Olympic dinghy sailor to offshore professional.5:24 He describes his first day aboard a Volvo 70 in Fremantle, Australia — knowing nobody, understanding nothing about a multi-sail big boat — and how he survived by volunteering for every unskilled job, including managing the food program.27:50 A key story involves a knockdown during a delivery passage from Australia to Spain aboard a Volvo 70: helmsman Stu Bannatine ended up neck-deep in water hanging onto the wheel, tethered to the boat, and deadpanned "Richard, I'm not very comfortable right now."0:17 Clarke reflects on offshore versus inshore sailing, his preference for high-performance carbon monohull racers, and his leadership philosophy — that admitting what you don't know and drawing on crew knowledge makes a skipper more effective, not less.7:49 Andy Schell provides a brief update from Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, noting crew openings on the Shetland race and the opening of the 2027 59-north.com calendar.1:09
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