AN ISLE of Wight sailor is expected to complete the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in Portsmouth today (Saturday) after an epic 11-month circumnavigation of the world’s toughest oceans.  

Max Rivers, skippering Our Isles and Oceans, will arrive at Gunwharf Quay this morning, having raced 40,000 nautical miles around the globe, crossing five oceans, landing in six continents and spending several weeks on each of the 14 gruelling legs competing at sea.  

The Clipper Race, which got underway on September 3 last year, has challenged non-professional sailors, who were trained to become ocean racers.

READ MORE: Isle of Wight skippers in Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

The fleet set off from Oban, Scotland, last Sunday (July 21), with just seven points separating the first and third placed yachts.

Max will not be picking up the winners' trophy, as his crew were lying in seventh from 11 teams, but he said he felt enormous pride in achieving what he set out to achieve with his crew, in his 'skipper's blog'. 

But his crew finished the final stage in a highly respectable fourth place, at 6pm, off Sandown Bay last night (Friday), after completing 850 nautical miles of ocean racing on the 14th race of the final stage, Leg 8  — its course following the west coast of the UK, before crossing the finish line.

There will be one last sprint across The Solent this morning, with bonus points still available and the race champion potentially emerging in its final minutes.

A second Isle of Wight sailor who set off last autumn, as the skipper of highly fancied Ha Long Bay Viet Nam, pulled out on Leg 6 of the Clipper Race — from Zhuhai to Qingdao, then on to Seattle — on March 8, for personal reasons, and was taken over by Bob Beggs, who was reportedly leading the race before the start of the 14th race from Scotland.

For those from the Isle of Wight planning to watch the teams come into Portsmouth today, which is estimated to be between 11.30am and 12 noon, there is a weekend festival of celebration of free family activities, which will run through to tomorrow evening (Sunday, July 28).

After the race, there will be a Parade of Sail at 1pm, with the teams — comprising a multi-national crew of more than 200 non-professional sailors — parading at Gunwharf Quay at 3.15pm and the prizegiving ceremony at 3.35pm, followed by live music.  

Founded in 1996 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world, the Clipper Race invites 11 teams to race eight legs, starting in Portsmouth, before visiting countries including Spain, Australia and the United States and then returning to Portsmouth.