Equity | Dock, Lock and River Blog (#dlr

The Clipper Round-the-World yacht race have used London as the prime host city on a number of occasions but for the 2019-20 race the Royal Docks became the location for the home-coming finale after the Mayor of London sponsored a change of finish location.

**Clipper Yachts leaving London on 1st September 2019**

The original plan for 2020 was for the race finale event to take place at the Asian Business Park in Royal Albert Dock – due to the Covid-19 pandemic the race was temporarily paused – hence the reason it only concluded in July 2022.

The other change is that the redevelopment of Albert Dock hit serious problems that left the enterprise zone area deserted. As a result the finale was moved along the dock to the Regatta Centre.

The yachts were meant to leave Derry (NI) and race to the finish line at Southend before then traveling in convoy up the Thames, to the KGV Lock and then on to the the finale event in Royal Albert Dock in a ‘parade of sail’ (note: for the clipper yachts the ‘sails’ referred to are their promotional and sponsor banners rather than their actual racing sails).

**PLA Harbour Master escorts race yachts to the KGV Lock**

Due to weather challenges in the North Sea the race was terminated early and the yachts were instructed to make directly for London and to use their engines (which are prohibited in the actual race legs). In the end only 10 of the 11 yachts arrived on time.

Some of the race supporters met the yachts at the KGV Lock, some were not impressed by the poor state of the facility with no welcome banners, a tatty flag, the poor state of repair and the North Woolwich Bascule Bridge not really a substitute for Tower Bridge!

The yachts traveled in overall finishing order being led by the yacht QINGDAO that was declared the overall winner – after transferring through the KGV Lock they paraded through the Royal Albert Dock with a pair of boats providing media support.

**Parade through the Royal Albert Dock**

The following link has a video of the parade:

The yachts then moored alongside the Regatta Centre for the official awards ceremonies and after race party.

**Race Yachts moored in Royal Albert Dock**

**Media support boats EQUITY & BRAVO LIMA GB**

The final boat, CV20 Imagine Your Korea, which was placed 8th overall in the race had been hit with technical issues during the final leg and arrived in London 24 hours after the main event and it remained in the KGV Lock until the entire fleet departed early Monday morning.

Further pictures can be seen below:

Clipper Race Yachts (1) @ Royal Docks 30-07-22

The Royal Docks is often used as a location for the set–up work for various PR events due to the non-tidal waters with good road access and areas of hard-standings with the benefit of being a little bit out of the public gaze (apart from me!!).

The end result – Liam Gallagher and band on a boat on the Thames in London

It remains to be seen how the redevelopment plans for the area will affect this facility but in the meantime I hope the interesting projects keep coming to the area.

So, back to Rock and Roll.

The latest project being undertaken by the Livett’s Group involved the creation of a floating stage for a music performance along with a full TV outside broadcast facility. To facilitate this the Livett’s team deployed their large P2 pontoon with tug Felix providing the motive power and luxury charter vessel Edwardian was used as a floating ‘green room’.

Edwardian acting as logistics base — Felix + P2 rigging the stage

In addition camera boat Equity and fast launch Lima Lima 1 were used to ferry personnel and to act as camera boats during the filming of the event.

Whilst the Royal Docks is often used for the preparation activity it is less often that the “star” of the show is seen in the area but on this occasion Liam Gallagher and his band used the location as a staging point for getting afloat.

As darkness fell the barge and accompanying boats started making their way up the Thames and were joined by a helicopter that was used to get some additional shots of the various Thames landmarks as the band and stage made their way towards Tower Bridge.