The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race sailor who survived more than 90 minutes overboard in the Pacific Ocean has been presented with a new drysuit by Henry Lloyd at the race's San Francisco stopover.  

This edition of the race, in which amateur paying crews under professional skippers battle it out in identical boats over 16 legs around the world has been full of incident, including this video of a huge wave smothering the cockpit of the yacht Great Britain.

On March 30th, in rough weather and 35 knots of wind, 46-year-old Project Manager from Oxfordshire, Andrew Taylor went over the side of the Clipper 70 yacht Derry~Londonderry~Doire and survived – almost certainly thanks to his drysuit.

Andrew Taylor

New Henri Lloyd Dry Suit presented to Andrew Taylor (right) who survived a terrifying Man-Overboard situation in the Pacific Ocean. (Photo: AP Photo/Noah Berger for Clipper Round the World Yacht Race)



Andrew said: “My Henri Lloyd drysuit was without question one of the major contributing factors to my survival during the time I spent overboard in the 11 degree waters of the North Pacific. I understand from our onboard team medic that my base layers were still dry when they were cut off after my recovery”.


Taylor was working on the foredeck and had briefly unclipped his safety harness when the boat lurched and he went overboard. He was struck on the leg by the rudder, but wasn't severely injured. He recalled seeing one of his crewmates climb the mast and was initially glad that the search was underway. However, he soon realised that it meant they had lost sight of him.

Sean McCarter, skipper of Derry-Londonderry-Doire wrote: "The moment Andrew went out of sight, the Pacific became a very big place all of a sudden. We had our man overboard position marked on the electronic chart, which gives us a point to start searching from and estimate where he may have drifted to with the wind and the current.

"The water temperature was ten to eleven degrees, you don’t want to have someone in there for really any longer than ten or 15 minutes. With huge seas and very strong winds and limited visibility because the sea state was so bad, it was made it a lot more challenging."




After an hour in the water, Taylor realised he still hadn't switched on his personal locator beacon. This signal led the yacht's crew to realise they were over a mile away from the MOB's location.

Skipper Sean McCarter continues: "As soon as we saw him, the initial reaction was a huge relief and then followed quite quickly by the realisation that we don’t have a clear idea what state he is in, dead or alive, conscious or unconscious, or injured?

"So we got round and as he saw the boat out the corner of his eye and started waving his arms and that was another massive relief. We got near to him and he was instructing us how to get him back on board."

The fleet has now arrived in Panama, having left San Francisco on 19 April with Henri Lloyd leading overall after 11 legs and Derry-Londonderry-Doire in fourth with four legs to go. The fleet will return to London from Den Helder in the Netherlands on 12 July sailing up the Thames to St Katharine's Marina.

Keep up with the latest on the race at the Clipper Round the world race website.

For more dramatic ocean stories, see: Sailing survivors: five extraordinary ocean voyages and for a preview of this year's start to the Volvo Ocean Race, see: New Volvo Ocean Race boat design.