When WMU alumna Erma Rheindrayani Siswowaluyo earned her MBA from the Haworth College of Business in 2003 she had no idea that she would someday crew on a 68-foot clipper in an amateur yacht race.

But when the government of Singapore came calling looking for a representative from Indonesia to be part of a 40-plus crew on the yacht, Uniquely Singapore, Erma eagerly volunteered, even though she had never before sailed.

The closest I have ever been to sailing was taking a ferry ride,” said Erma, who is a Foreign Service officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. “The race starts at Liverpool, England on Sept. 16 and I will join the crew on leg 4. I’ll meet the yacht in Fremantle, Australia on January 1, 2008 and be on board until the yacht docks in Qingdao, China at the new Olympic sailing complex in mid-February.”

Erma will be one of more than 350 international sailors taking part in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race. Singapore sponsored a yacht as part of the ongoing celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

When the starting cannon fires on the Mersey on 16 September 2007 it will signal the start of a 35,000-mile adventure. The fleet of identical ocean-racing yachts will set off from Liverpool on a ten-month journey, calling at 14 ports en route, before returning next July when the city will be celebrating its status as European Capital of Culture 2008.

Up to ten people on each yacht will complete the entire circumnavigation of the globe, while other crewmembers will join for one or more of the seven individual legs of the race. They are all non-professional sailors and approximately 40 percent of them had no sailing experience whatsoever before beginning their Clipper training.

“For the past month we have been training in Gosport, England, learning about the boat, the weather and how to race,” Erma said. “This experience has been a mix of adventure and self discovery! Learning to sail has reaffirmed my belief that if you put your mind to something anything is possible. Sailing has also taught me that good teamwork is crucial, because if the crew does not work together we will not be able to get the boat going.”

This will be the sixth Clipper Race since it was established eleven years ago by renowned yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world. He wanted to give ordinary people the opportunity to experience the exhilaration and challenge of ocean racing, something that until then had been the preserve of the rich or professional sailors.

Since the first Clipper Race in 1996 more than 1,400 people have taken part and the fleet has completed more than 1.5 million miles of safe, ocean racing.

The training and learning about these boats has been a long, exhausting, and at times excruciatingly difficult experience,” Erma said. “But at the same time it was one of the happiest and most exciting times I have experienced because of the great diversity of people I have met while training.”

WMU International News will feature an on-board and post-trip story about Erma’s big adventure in upcoming issues.

Some information from this story was obtained online at: www.clipperroundtheworld.com