Around the world

A yacht competing in the Round the World race is grounded on a reef. Crew members were rescued by Team Finland, which includes Groesbeck’s Tony Allen. Tony Allen. Courtesy photo Many people choose to live life at a slower pace as they near 70.

Not Tony Allen.

The 69-year-old Groesbeck man is racing around the world in a clipper-rigged sailboat as a member of Team Finland, one of 10 identical 68-foot boats competing in the Clipper Ventures Round the World yacht race. The race is broken into 15 legs and covers more than 40,000 miles.

Despite the fact that he had never set foot on a sailboat, Allen decided to give yacht racing a try after seeing an ad in a magazine.

“I subscribe to a yachting magazine called Latitude 38,” Allen said via e-mail from an Internet café in Singapore. “Clipper Ventures had an ad in the magazine last spring recruiting people for the 2009-2010 race.”

Allen was accepted and assigned to Team Finland.

“In a recruiting questionnaire, Clipper Ventures asked if I wanted to be on a particular boat,” he said. “I said ‘no.’ The only USA sponsored boat was the California, and I did not want to be on a boat with a majority of Americans. I was very fortunate to be assigned to Team Finland because over the course of the race, 19 nationalities will be part of the crew.”

The race starts in the United Kingdom and proceeds to France, Brazil, South America, Australia, Singapore, China, San Francisco, Panama, Jamaica, New York, Cape Breton Island and, 10 months after it begins, the race ends in the United Kingdom.

Crew sizes for the clippers range from 16 to 20 people, and all are amateurs except the skipper, who has professional racing experience.

“The crew is not specialized in the jobs they do aboard the boat,” Allen said. “Team Finland uses a rotation that keeps four to five people on deck at all times. Also, two crew members are assigned to prepare all the meals, make bread, and handle general cleaning and housekeeping duties for the day.”

Crews can change during the course of the race, but Team Finland currently is comprised of 19 people, seven females and 12 males. Allen is the oldest racer on the team -- the youngest is 19.

Allen said the dangers of sailing on open seas are many, but the clippers have safety systems in place and crew members receive extensive training before and during the race.

“Crew members wear life jackets and a safety line that clips onto a ‘jackstay’ that runs the entire length of the yacht,” he said. “Sail changes during heavy seas and high winds can be challenging and requires crew coordination and focus. Cooking a meal in rough seas can be fun -- so can trying to sleep and stay in your bunk while ‘beating’ into a state five sea at 8 knots. No fresh water showers are available, so taking a salt-water shower off the aft end of the boat is a real treat, or if you are on deck during a rain squall you can have a rain-water shampoo.”

Allen, a native of Pennsylvania, is retired from the U.S. Navy and also retired from a wastewater treatment company in California. He has been on the staff at Groesbeck-based Insurance Licensing Service of America for several years and is a member of the Groesbeck Fourth of July committee.