Barcelona World Race Report
Dual handed, Around the World, nonestop! "Who’s gonna drive?"
The first edition of this dual handed, non stop, round the world race was concluded on 28th February 2008 when Educacions Sin Fronteras crossed the finish line in Barcelona. 9 Open 60s set out from Barcelona on the 11th November 2007. By Christmas this race had already pushed some of the world’s greatest sailors to the limits of their boats endurance, and beyond. Delta Dore, PRB, Estrella Damm and Viola Environment had all suffered major failures, and decided to retire from racing. This left five boats to carry on deeper into the Southern Ocean, pushing through the race gate between the North and South Islands of New Zealand and finally round that great landmark to all sailors, Cape Horn, before their return leg up the Atlantic to Barcelona.
Though the race rules stated that this was a dual handed race, the five remaining boats, all designed by different people, all built at different yards had one thing in common; they had a third person driving them, that third person was a B&G Autopilot. In the words of winning co-skipper Damien Foxall:
“An autopilot is worth at least two or three crew, any manoeuvre requires at least two people. While on the foredeck pulling down the small spinnaker in 35 knots its pretty nice to be able to rely on your autopilot keeping the boat pointed downwind.”
The final boat to finish in 108 days and 18 hours was Educacions Sin Fronteras skippered by Catalan Albert Bargues and the youngest competitor in the race, Frenchwoman Servane Escoffier. This was a remarkable feat as they where one of only two boats to complete the race without being forced to make a pit stop along the route. The boat was also the oldest in the fleet having originally been launched in 2000 as Kingfisher for Ellen MacArthur to compete in the 2000 Vendee Globe, she was then renamed Skandia for Nick Moloney to take part in the 2004 edition. Following an extensive refit by Offshore Challenges in Cowes, UK, the boat was re-launched as Educacions Sin Fronteras in July 2007. The crew were joined in the Solent by Miles Seddon, B&G Race Specialist, for sea trials and commissioning of the B&G Hercules instruments and Pilot.
At the other end of the fleet, finishing 1st, after 92 days and 9 hours at sea without a pit stop, was the Franco-Irish duo of Jean-Pierre Dick and Damien Foxall on Paprec- Virbac 2. This new generation Open 60 was launched in February 2007 at Southern Ocean Marine in New Zealand and fitted with a B&G WTP2 processor combined with a B&G Pilot. This was the first real test for the boat and the onboard systems. The boat will now go into the 2008 Vendee Globe as one of the favourites, with a proven track-record.
Chasing Paprec-Virbac 2 around the world and pushing them hard all the way to the finish, despite a 48-hour pit stop in Wellington NZ, was Hugo Boss skippered by Alex Thomson and Andrew Cape. The Dynamic Duo pushed the most radical looking new generation Open 60 as hard as they could, relying on their H3000 Hercules Pilot to drive them down the massive seas of the Southern Ocean. For Alex this race was a case of third time lucky, having been dismasted in the 2004 Vendee Globe, then being dramatically rescued by fellow sailor Mike Golding in the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans Race. Alex will now go on to race Hugo Boss in the 2008 Vendee Globe, confident that the boat and the B&G Pilot will give him his best chance of winning this most famous race.
In 3rd place was the team of Dominic Wavre and Michèle Paret, onboard Temenos II, another recently built Open 60 launched in September 2006. Temenos spent most of the race locked in their own personal battle with 4th placed Mutua Madrileña (ex Ecover). It looked at one stage as though the Swiss team were going to be overhauled by the Catalans on Mutua Madrileña when they where forced to make a pit stop in Wellington NZ, to have suspected keel damage inspected. As it turned out Mutua Madrileña was also forced into Wellington for some minor repairs and to check their onboard systems. With the 48 hour time penalty enforced, Temenos left Wellington with the same slender lead over Mutua Madrileña as when they had stopped. Both boats raced the 28,000 miles around the globe with H2000 Pilots. In fact for the Catalans this was the second time that their autopilot had driven the boat around the world. In 2004 the same boat with the same autopilot took Mike Golding to 3rd place in the Vendee Globe.
All of us at B&G would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who finished the Barcelona World Race, and extend our best wishes to those skippers going on to compete in this year's Vendee Globe.
