| South Africa. Clipper Race crew results of fundraising in Durban |
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| Friday, 02 December 2005 | |
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Event media: Glorious Guerners… fundraising fun in Durban Whilst on their way to Durban, Skipper Danny Watson and his crew onboard Qingdao Clipper, in a rather windless day of racing it must be said, launched to the fleet the idea of a Clipper Gurning contest. For those non-Brits amongst our readership, an explanation of this ridiculous act is probably necessary. Gurning is an old English tradition which involved pulling the most ridiculous and distorted facial expression possible, typically projecting the lower jaw forward and covering the upper lip with the lower lip… This strange ancient art has lived on in many of Englands villages having began in medieval times between villages and during local fetes and festivals. Instead of the usual Horse collar to place your head through to compete in the art of Guerning, the Qingdao crew used their Heli-strop onboard which provided a particularly good frame for their fantastic face pulling. As news of this contest being opened up to the fleet spread, the competitive nature of our crews took hold, and the last night of the stopover saw Clipper crews gathering in the Race Village marquee to view and judge the results of some amazing entries to the Clipper 05-06 Guerning Championships. Tension mounted as a local photographer judged the ten finalists in front of a live and unsympathetic Clipper audience. Winner, Peter Bayfield from Victoria Clipper, is almost certainly proud of his title of fleet Guerning Champion! There was a serious message behind the fun and laughter however, as the Qingdao crews sought not only the silly faces of their crew mates, but also to fundraise for a local charity which has become close to all crews hearts in Durban. Icare is a non-profit charity organisation devoted to finding meaningful and sustainable solutions to the challenge of street children in South Africa. Having collected and counted all of the funds raised on the final evening and the last coins left in pockets being thrown into buckets as the fleet left their berths the crews managed to raise a fantastic amount of money and Operations Director Colin de Mowbray presented a cheque to Icare representative Linda Tredwell after the fleet had departed for nearly R9,000. So thank you to all of the crew, family and friends who helped raising this money, which are being put towards school supplies for the children we visited at the streetwise shelter and many more www.clipper-ventures.com |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 02 December 2005 ) |
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