[James]

ROBERTO CONTE, the "Italian Stallion" from last summer's Big Brother reality TV show, is on his way to Perth, Western Australia, for the toughest leg of the Clipper round-the-world yacht race after a chance meeting on a train to Liverpool with one of the event's organisers. The former school teacher booked a flight to Durban in South Africa to take his berth in the amateur race 48 hours after hearing about it from a Fast Track executive. After three weeks on the treacherous southern oceans, he will wish he was back in the Big Brother house.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...893611,00.html

[James]

8:13 PM Tue 29 Nov 2005 GMT
At this early stage in the race, positions tend to fluctuate rather a lot and this leg is proving no different as the fleet of ten Clipper 68s eased out into
the Southern Ocean........

......Big Brother in the Southern Ocean: westernaustralia.com gained the assistance of Roberto Conte for this leg, the Italian Stallion star of this year's Big Brother 6 in the UK. Roberto who hails from Italy but now lives in Liverpool is forging a career in the media but has taken time out to sail on this; the most difficult and challenging leg so far.

Asked for his views before departing from Durban, Roberto said 'The conditions will be similar to Big Brother in that a number of us have to live in really close quarters but I'm not expecting anyone to be voted off this time!'

Watch this space for regular updates on the progress of Roberto and the rest of the crew.

Leader Board: - DTF - DTL

1. Durban - 3955 0
2. Uniquely Singapore - 3965 10
3. Glasgow - 3966 11
3. westernaustralia.com - 3971 16
4. Qingdao - 3972 17
4. Victoria - 3978 23
6. Cardiff - 3983 28
7. Liverpool 08 - 3984 29
6. New York - 3985 30
10. Jersey - 3987 3

http://www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=20296

[James]

westernaustralia.com finish third in Fremantle

1:47 AM Sat 17 Dec 2005 GMT

'Clipper westernaustralia.com arrives Fremantle' by Clipper Ventures
Saturday 17th December 05: westernaustralia.com crossed the finish line at 04.54 local time (20.54 GMT) to claim third place in the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race, completing the podium some 6 hours behind the front two, Durban and Victoria. The Australian boat skippered by David Pryce has displayed remarkable consistency in the race so far, notching up two wins in the first two legs and placing third here to maintain their overall lead.

They finally crossed the finish line after several hours where they were totally becalmed, just yards from the finish as day broke around them. When they eventually made it to Fishing Boat Harbour, Western Australia proved what a welcome host everyone was expecting with a traditional Aussie barbeque and an ice cold beer awaiting the elated Southern Ocean heroes. westernaustralia.com passed the purple-illuminated Maritime Museum where a canon was fired and a flotilla of around twenty boats greeted the Aussie team.........

........Roberto Conte the Italian star of Britain’s Big Brother 6 was close to speechless upon arriving in Fremantle: ‘I am struggling to find the words to explain how I have felt the last few weeks. The things I have seen, the amazing sailing and the way we have all bonded is just incredible. It’s a great team with a fantastic skipper.’

The next race starts at 0500 hours GMT on Sunday 1st January 2006 where the crew of this 10 yacht race will sprint up the Indian Ocean to the South East Asian island of Singapore.

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/...pid=&nid=20574

Roberto's Diary
Australia Wednesday, 14th December 2005
Life is a strange thing; if someone a month ago told me that soon I would cross an ocean on a sailing boat I would have thought that the person was mad. However, here I am! I guess its true what people say ‘you never know what's around the corner’. Well in my case the Indian Ocean and Australia! What a contrast, actually what a year! First there was Big Brother, then a big change in life style and now this, the icing on the cake. So how's my life and routine changed in the last few weeks? Radically!

Life on board is very rigidly organised and planned, it has to be like that and let me explain why. There are nineteen people onboard Westernaustralia.com. Dave is the skipper and he's in charge of everything, a lot of responsibility. Dave is a fairly young man; I guess he is in his early thirties. I'm quite impressed with the guy, he's extremely talented and he has such a wide range of skills. Beside all the skills required from a skipper (navigation, tactics, knowledge of the sea and wind) he seems to know everything about the boat from the electrics to plumbing, he can fix the lot if needed. The other day he fixed a blocked pipe in the toilet in no time (not a nice job I must say). To me he looks like an intellectual/geek skipper, you can tell that his mind never stops, he's always thinking or planning something. Watching him in action is quite fascinating, the pupils of his eyes move very quickly from left to right, he moves very fast up and down the deck without loosing balance and sometimes he looks as if he's on a different planet..........

The rest here - http://www.clipper-ventures.co.uk/20...dex.php?id=161

[texbex]

Wow I think this man deserves an award I couldnt go travelling round the sea on a plain sailing boat

[James]

This is being shown on television on Saturday and Sunday.

From the listings...

SPORT: Clipper Round The World Yacht Race

Saturday 11th Feb
Sky Sports 3 22:00

Sunday 12th Feb
SSportsXtra 00:30 and 16:00, SSports2 02:00, SSports3 05:30 and 20:30

Leaving Africa behind, the fleet descends into the notorious Southern Ocean on their way to Australia. Big Brother contestant Roberto Conte joins the crew of westernaustralia.com.