Barcelona World RACE

Created by the FNO (Foundation by the Oceanic Navigation of Barcelona) and the OC Events (part of the OC Group) property of Ellen Mac Arthur and Mark Turner. It will comprise of the championship by points of the association (IMOCA) and will be, by his place in the international calendar of regatas, a prelude for Vendée Globe.

Return to the world To Two and without scales that will be celebrated every four years. The first edition will begin the 11 of November of 2,007 in Barcelona. A route of 25,000 miles around the world without scales. More than three months of competition

New regata transoceanic in monocoques that will unite two until now separated worlds of the competition, the participant solitaires in Vendée Globe and the crew in participant equipment in the Volvo Ocean RACE. Barcelona World RACE will give the possibility them of competing jointly. We will have the opportunity to see in a same competition the best thing of these two worlds, until now distant.

The boats will be monocoque IMOCA Open 60 like the used ones in Vendée Globe since the needs of completion for navigation To Two are very similar to navigation alone. In addition this election lowers the costs of the sponsors in comparison to the Volvo Ocean RACE with monocoques VOR 70. One regata carries far and competitive that the sponsors will cover approximately with a payment between the five and seven million Euros if it includes a new boat, or between one and two million Euros if it is rented. Like addition, the class Open 60 is a consolidated class, with than 20 boats competing more in the circuit of the IMOCA

The FNO has it jeopardize the bottoms sufficient to be able to be realized, not only this first edition, but also the two following ones. The technical delegate of the competition will be the oceanic regatista Spanish Toni Guiu.

One will be realized regata previous qualifying with scales in France and the United Kingdom, and finalizing in Barcelona where the fleet in the middle of October of 2.007 will meet.

The period of inscription the 1 of February of 2,006 will be abrirá, but some navigators and their sponsors already have expressed their intention to be in the line of exit, among them, Guillermo Altadill (member of Ericsson in the VOR), Alex Thomson (to skipper of Hugo Boss), Mike Golding (to skipper of Ecover), Dominique Wavre, Mike Sanderson (to skipper of the ABN1 in the VOR), Jean-Pierre Dick (to skipper of the 60 Open Vibrac) and Sebastien Josse (to skipper of the ABN2 in the VOR), Jonathan McKee (winning of the VOR Ross Field), Roy Heiner (Participant in the Glass America) and Bouwe Bekking (to skipper of the Movistar in the VOR).

Ellen McArthur affirms: “regata BWR will be different. The concept is incredible, two navigators in a competition of return to the world without scales. I have there been and already I have been single. I imagine how it will be dynamics being with another person. It is already sufficiently difficult to do this alone, when you are tired, exhausted and you try to make the correct decisions. It is going to be interesting to live a situation on this type being with another one”

Regata will cover more than 25,000 miles in a trip that will give the return to the world through the route of the south of Africa, Australia and South America. Regata has nine I put steering wheels, obligatory crossing sites, located in waters of Gibraltar, Canary, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile and again Brazil, the Canary Islands, Gibraltar and finally Barcelona. The adventure will extend throughout three months during which scales will not become.

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