Invitation…A four day trip to Barcelona for New Year as a guest of Alex Thomson Racing, Hugo Boss and Neutrogena, maybe some Tapas and a few drinks? a chance to brush up on my School boy Spanish! oh!… and a day on the water watching the start of the Barcelona World Race…Invitation Accepted!
The Race day bought light winds and clear blue skies, perfect conditions for photographers, frustrating for the skippers!
After a sad farewell to family and friends, the skippers leave the dock and take their boats to the start line, I was lucky enough to be on the Neutrogena Rib following Guillermo Altadil and Jose Munoz.
Making their intentions clear, right from the start, Hugo boss, Sailed by Alex Thomson and Pepe Ribes, bolted off the start line (even in 7 knots of wind! ) to take to the front.
Followed closely by Neutrogena, how ever, the weather had other plans, the light winds became shifty, then dropped off to nothing, add to that hundreds of spectator boats that seemed to have over looked the notes that explained ‘exclusion zones’, all in all made for some interesting conditions.
Finally the winds filled, the spectator boats headed back to port to prepare for New Years Eve and the skippers were finally on their own and heading west! (well SW really!)
Good luck to the guys on Hugo Boss and Neutrogena and of course all the other skippers, all the pictures taken on the day of the start can be found at https://www.marine-events.co.uk/category/gallery/event-photos-2015/
You can follow the progress of the skippers on the BWR site at http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/race-live/barcelona-world-race-2014-15-tracker
Thank you to the team at Alex Thomson Racing for a superb few days!
