The Financial Times Clipper Race 1975-6 started off Sheerness on 31 August 1975. Four ocean racing yachts raced 27,000 miles from the Thames to Sydney and back.
Source: To Beat the Clippers by Alec Beilby
To Beat the Clippers by Alec Beilby:
“The Thames Estuary was shrouded in grey as the four Clipper Race yachts moored off Sheerness to await the Sunday start. Families and friends took every available room in Sheernessa smal town and commercial port at the north-west tip of the Isle of Sheppey which faces across the Thames and the entrance to the River Medway.”
“The start, to be signalled at 9 a.m. from HMS Londonderry by Mr Edward Heath, was timed to give the yachts maximum benefit from the ebbing tide which would help them out to sea past North Foreland and through the Downs into the English Channel. Sunday 31 August dawned with no let-up in the autumnal weather; a chilly north easterly wind blew across the flat shores of the Thames and there was little colour for the photographers.“