LEADER William Ward, Clipper Ventures
event they practised on before hosting the sailing competition in the
Olympics. It was on a scale we weren’t used to – we were gobsmacked.
We turned up at an event to meet the Mayor and we saw all these
TV broadcast trucks. I didn’t for one second think any of this was for
Clipper – it didn’t even cross my mind. I walked into this huge room and
the Mayor was sitting at the head and one side was full of dignitaries,
but our side was empty because we didn’t know the scale. I thought we
were just exchanging gifts, but it was being televised live. I only had two
people with me, our Race Director and a PR person.
The event was televised live throughout China. Their entertainment
included their top gymnasts, opera singers, bands ... they were basically
practising for the Olympics. We went back there in 2008 for the
Olympics as guests of the city and we’ve carried on there ever since.
Why has China developed such an attachment to the race?
They’ve named it as the ‘people’s race’ and it hasn’t got quite that
price ticket of the [former] Volvo Ocean Race. It does well because it
gives a real return on investment.
We have a lot of income from crew members, so we’re not so reliant
on a sponsor of a boat to make our business work. Our media figures are
very similar to the Volvo Ocean Race, TV wise and so on. An entry for a
city is between GBP1 million to 2 million, and the return is 25-fold.
But beyond sponsorship, there’s huge interest within China in
sailing in the race.
In the last race, the Chinese participation was the third highest,
behind UK and the USA. China had 38 people, so pipped Australia by
two.
The Chinese teams buy crew places from us and then stage a
selection process, creating a programme on TV just for the selection,
like reality TV. It can be a bit wacky, but we’ve noticed the standard of
people sailing rising each time.
In the 2013-14 race, Vicky Song became the first Chinese woman to
circumnavigate the globe and became a household name in China, all
because of the Clipper Race.
It’s remarkable as it really is only in the last 10 or 20 years that
China has been opening up. I went to China 40 years ago to buy cane
and rattan for basket ware. I’d left school when I was 15, worked in the
markets, one thing led to another and I ended up in basket ware. That’s
why I first went to China, in 1979, and I was frightened out of my wits. I
had a Sony Walkman and a dictaphone, and the police took me away to
ask why I had two recording devices. I was only 20. I was frightened out
of my life, I’ll tell you.
China has changed beyond all recognition since that time. It has
changed beyond recognition in the last 20 years and again in the last 10
years.
That’s why we’ve set up a Chinese company, Clipper China, sold 40
per cent of it to Wispark Sports, which is based in Shanghai, and signed
an MOU live on TV with the plan to set up sailing hubs across China.
The country has taken to sailing. It is one of their directives. It’s a clean
sport.
They’re very educated now academically, but they now want to get
people off their butts and into sport. They’ve got a huge coastline, but
until recently nobody went to sea unless you went fishing.
People underestimate how big the whole sailing industry is. For
every boat or group of boats, you need this back-up service for repairs,
engines, gelcoats, marine electronics, navigation equipment, sailmakers,
all these sort of things that live off the back of sailing and sailing events.
The Chinese are very, very good at looking long term. While they’re
creating lots of wealth in other areas, they can afford to put that wealth
into other sports and lifestyle aspects to benefit people as a whole.
You can already see more marinas. I went to one with 650 berths and“We limited it to three
Chinese yachts.
We could have had more.”