Round-the- 8 Wednesday September 4, 2013

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Can dishing up hearty nutritious meals make the difference between winning and losing the world’s long-est ocean race?

Chef Lawrence Lingard, who is a crew member on the China boat, Qingdao – one of 12 yachts taking part in the Clipper Round-the- World Yacht Race – definite-ly thinks so.

The 47-year-old restau-rant owner, who trained at some of London’s Miche-lin-starred establishments, spoke to us before setting off on the gruelling chal-lenge from St Katharine Docks on Sunday.

The former amateur box-er has taken on the vital role as the yacht’s victual-ler – putting together the menu and working out the food supplies needed to en-

ergise the 22-strong crew as they encounter different temperatures and rough weather conditions while circumnavigating 40,000 miles around the globe over 11 months.

As we step onboard most of the crew are busy making last minute safety checks while Lawrence is stacking tins of tomatoes under the bunk beds.

Apart from the profes-

sional skipper leading the amateur crew, keeping the team fed is probably the biggest responsibilty and requires someone good with numbers, who can work out complex quantities.

With a budget of just £3.50 per person a day Lawrence has to ensure everyone gets their daily energy require-ment of 5,000 calories while keeping the weight of food supplies onboard to a mini-mum. The stock needs to last 45 days for the first leg to South America, including five days of emergency sup-plies in case they get stuck in rough weather.

Lawrence said: “It’s much more stressful than running my own restaurant. You need to provide enough pro-teins and carbohydrates.

“As well as pasta I’m using brown rise and pulses, such as lentils and beans, a bit like porridge your body stores

and slowly releases the energy, so that’s a good kind of carbohydrate. Providing enough energy through the

food will help keep morale up.

“I experienced that dur-ing our training when the guy doing the cooking didn’t get the portions rights. I was the last one down and there wasn’t hardly anything left.

Stores “I felt so depressed and it made me realise how impor-tant food is because it is all you have got to look forward to during the day. I definitely think it could make a differ-ence between winning and losing the race.”

Literally hundreds of onions are stored below deck. Lawrence explained: “Onions are cheap, will add flavour and help bulk the meat out. When you have got just £3.50 per person a

Challenge can be won or lost in ship’s galleyChef crew member says food is vital to energise adventurersby Else Kvistelse.kvist@archant.co.uk

� Restaurateur Lawrence Lingard is among the crew on the Quindao and responsible for the ship’s supplies

� Yachts set off on the marathon journey

� One of the competitors pictured off Rainham Marshes

Photo by John Hercock

world clipper race Wednesday September 4, 2013 9

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Macmillan World's

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Morning

We will be holding a coffee morning in honour of Macmillan Cancer Support

There will be plenty of coffee (and tea) with a variety of cakes and biscuits to get your hands on.

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� One of the bunk beds inside the Quindao team’s yatch

Picture: David Mirzoeff

Large crowds lined the banks of the River Thames, near Tower Bridge, to cheer on the crews of the world’s longest ocean race.

More than 120,000 spec-tators waved off the Clip-per Round-the-World Yacht Race, as it set sail from St Katharine Docks on Sunday.

It is the first time Lon-don has hosted the clipper race and it is 40 years since the Thames last featured a round-the-world sailing event.

The 12-strong fleet of 70ft ocean racing yachts and a flotilla of support vessels, including a paddleship steamer, pilot and police boats and pleasure cruisers participated in a pageant.

Tower Bridge was also opened to salute the crews facing the ultimate endur-ance test as they set off for the first leg to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The fleet will not return until July next year after a total of 670 crew have raced 40,000 miles and visited 16 ports on six continents.

Legendary British yachts-man, Clipper Race founder and chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said: “It is wonderful to see these gutsy people set off on one of the greatest adventures left on the planet.

“Departing from the icon-ic Tower Bridge is some-

thing really special for the crews and skippers who have been building up to this moment for months.

“To see them return to London as accomplished circumnavigators in 11 months time will be a spe-cial moment.”

ExhilaratingDesigned to provide every-one – regardless of sailing experience – the chance to race across oceans and taste the exhilaration of complet-ing a circumnavigation, the

race has turned over 3,500 novices into ocean racers since its inception in 1995.

Everyone from teach-ers, nurses and lorry driv-ers to accountants, sports stars and film directors from across the globe team together to take on the world’s toughest sailing con-ditions.

The experience doesn’t come cheap with crew mem-bers paying a minimum of around £10,000, including £5,000 for compulsory train-ing, for just one leg.

To take part in the whole race costs about £42,000.

The race did not officially start until Monday morning offshore at Southend.

The first leg ends in Rio, the destination for the 2016 Olympic sailing events.

They then continue on via South Africa, Western Aus-tralia, the east coast of Aus-trailia, Singapore, China, San Francisco, Panama, Ja-maica, New York, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands before returning to Lon-don’s St Katharine Docks.

Cheering thousands wave off shipmates on gutsy expedition

day for three meals it’s re-ally tough. But if you think the crew on his ship are go-ing to live on cheap corned beef, think again.

“It’s easier to provide the 5,000 calories a day through meat – say a piece of chick-en or minced beef. If you were using a tin of beef casserole – which is expen-sive – you would still need to add vegetables. I figured it would be lighter in weight and cheaper to have our own produce.

“So as a crew we made the decision to buy two travel freezers to allow us to have frozen meat. I’ve saved £120 just on doing the butchering my-self.”

Lawrence even managed to save enough money to buy chocolate bars as snacks for the crew as they requested.

He continued: “The food also needs to be quick and easy because if the boat is keeled over at 30 degrees and you are trying to cook that’s going to be a challenge.

“I’m trying to design a menu which provides qual-ity, but at the same time should be easily achiev-able.”

Dishes on the menu include oats and toast for breakfast, and soup, cheese sandwiches or tuna wraps for lunch. Supper can be chilli con carne, spaghetti carbonara without the eggs, shepherds pie or his grand-ma’s chicken curry recipe.

It is always followed by a sweet such as apple crumble and custard. Now and again the crew will have bacon sandwiches as a treat and fruit as snacks.

The menu rotates eve-ry eight days. Supplies include “rough weather food”.

Lawrence said: “I got these tinned pork burgers. You just boil them up – if the weather is too bad to cook or the crew is seasick all the time.”

NervousBut Lawrence – like the rest of the crew – will only be on cooking duties every 11 days when on Mother Watch – the term used for cooking and cleaning the toilet heads and other facilities.

It is the only day when they have a chance to get a full night’s sleep and maybe a shower. The rest of the time each watch of 11 crew alternate between sailing duties and resting either four or six hours at a time.

“We all have our weak-nesses and strengths. I guess I’m nervous about not being able to sail because I think I’m the least able,” concluded Lawrence.

We all have our weaknesses and strengths. I guess I’m nervous about not being able to sail because I think I’m the least able

Chef Lawrence Lingard