IMOCA Ocean Masters New York to Barcelona Race - Start
by Leslie Greenhalgh 2 Jun 2014 09:13 NZST
1 June 2014
The IMOCA Ocean Masters New York to Barcelona race starts © Th.Martinez / Sea&Co / OSM
Today at 1120, the first boats left North Cove Marina, one by one they were bid good luck by Sir Keith Mills, Chairman of OSM (Open Sports Management) and Barcelona Deputy Mayor Mrs Maite Fandos, also President of FNOB (Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing), co-hosts with OSM of the IMOCA Ocean Masters New York to Barcelona race. Also bidding them a safe journey was Luc Talbourdet, Vice President of the IMOCA Class and Peter Bayer, CEO of OSM.
First to leave was Hugo Boss (co-skippers Pepe Ribes & Ryan Breymaier), then GAES (co-skippers Anna Corbella & Gerard Marin), followed by Neutrogena (Guillermo Altadill & Jose Munoz, then Safran (Marc Guillemot and Morgan Lagraviere)and to round up the fleet, last to leave the harbour was 'Spirit of Hungary' skippered by Nandor Fa and co-skipper Marcell Goszleth, who arrived into North Cove Marina only yesterday and made the incredible turnaround to the start line today.
The start process was set up by Commodore of Manhattan Yacht Club, Mr Michael Fortenbaugh, running the pre-start commentary next to the impressive Howtizer Cannon (also used to start the New York Marathon). Manhattan Yacht Club have been the New York hosts to this event and the fleet of boats during the time at North Cove Marina, who have been using the stunning 3 masted yacht 'Arabella' as their event HQ for the week – an amazing welcome, facility and experience for all.
The incredible cannon start gun was fired at 1210 hrs local time by which time a large crowd had gathered to watch this amazing spectacle. Sir Keith Mills read out the final count down from 10 seconds and Maite Fandos lowered the class flag on the start.
Sir Keith Mills, OSM Chairman commented on the day's iconic start: " This is a new era in IMOCA Ocean Masters racing, starting in the heart of New York city and racing to Barcelona – two of the greatest cities in the world. This is a great preview to what we can expect for the Barcelona World Race which starts later this year.
Deputy Mayor Maite Fandos added, "This is a magnificent occasion for the city of Barcelona, we are really glad to have this sports union between our two cities, and it is a real pleasure to be here. We hope good weather conditions will accompany the fleet in their crossing to Barcelona and so we wish fair winds and good luck to all skippers and we look forward to welcoming them in our city."
The event was summed up by Luc Talbourdet, Vice President of the IMOCA Class, "With Sir Keith we have kept our promise to run a race from USA to Europe and link these 2 iconic cities. Another great step in the move to internationalise our amazing class."
And then they set off for the 3700 mile trip across the Atlantic – next stop Barcelona – good luck and fair winds to all.
Quotes:
MARC GUILLEMOT, Safran:
"Like lots of sailors who are heading out to sea for a race, I am always keen to leave, and once I have gone, I am always in a hurry to arrive! I would take an oar to scull if we were allowed to !! The conditions over the first couple of days will be very light, so we'll have to be patient and to stay focused so that we can reach the stronger winds as soon as possible.The first challenge will be to sail past the Statue of Liberty, as we will have very little wind and strong current on the Hudson River."
MORGAN LAGRAVIERE, Safran: About his time in New York:
"In the early days of the week I spent most of the time with my girlfriend and her family, but then I switched to competition mode.We're in an amazing city, I've spent quite a lot of time hanging around on Broadway, I went to Time Square, I had the feeling that you can just walk around and always end-up in some really nice places. I think it should take us more or less 15 days to get to Barcelona. Our two main challengers seem to be Neutrogena and HUGO BOSS. But Gaes may very well be strong competition as well. We've only seen them race fully crewed for now, and double-handed configuration is quite different, so we'll see ! It's very likely that we'll have a strong fight until the finish!
GUILLERMO ALTADILL, Neutrogena Sailing Team:
"New York is a great city and I was really impressed by the 9/11 Memorial, an example of how Americans are capable of turning the tables. I think I will be in Gibraltar in 11 days, predicting the Mediterranean now is just impossible, we'll have to wait, but the normal for this time of year will be to play with the daytime heat and at night with the gradient.
"This race will be a good test of our performance for me and my co-skipper José, as until now we have always sailed with more people on board, this will be our first race double-handed. We need to find our best way to sail and to think about what modifications (sails, keel, etc.) we want to do before the Barcelona World Race."
JOSÉ MUÑOZ, Neutrogena Sailing Team:
"I'm anxious to cast off and start. To see how we compare with the other teams, how fast we are and also we will be able to sail double handed in a race!! The performance of the boat could allow us to be seconds if we sailed very well, because with Safran we foresee a close fight, while Hugo Boss is a faster boat. But my aim, as always when I compete, is to win, and Guillermo is also super competitive, so we're going to go 120%.
GERARD MARIN, GAES Sailing Team:
"What did I have for dinner last night? Eggs Benedict! I was told it is a NY speciality and did not want to leave without trying but I waited until the last day because I normally do not eat eggs. As for my results objective, I like to win, but it's hard. The competitors are very experienced and are very high performance teams, to be close to them in the race will already be an achievement. We have to be consistent and avoid breakage, those will be our trump cards."
ANNA CORBELLA, Gaes Hearing Centres:
"NY is awesome, it was my first time here, to see the city first hand is stunning. It's a multi ethnic city, people are different, and they are very nice. I would like to stay longer. I will miss the friendliness of the people. This race is a great opportunity to learn more about the possibilities of boat, a real luxury training session. Our boat is not as fast as the rest of the fleet, some improvements on the sails and keel are needed before the Barcelona World Race, but our main asset is the reliability of our boat and our racing steadfastness."
PEPE RIBES, Hugo Boss:
"The forecast is better now, it will be very fast to Gibraltar, I think in 10 days and a half we can be there, and maybe 13 days to Barcelona. Maybe if we are lucky in the Mediterranean we can break the record. For us, we need to check that everything functions properly, and that we are in the race. I've never competed before with this boat, nor with Ryan. Of course, the objective will be to finish the race and gain confidence with the boat."
RYAN BREYMAEIR, Hugo Boss:
"Really looking forward to the race, it's a great opportunity for me as the only American Skipper competing and to race on Hugo Boss which is one of the fastest boats in the fleet. Its going to be great racing with Pepe and arriving into his home town of Barcelona. The support that we've had in Newport when fixing the mast and all the work by the ATR team and support crew. Great to see so many people turn out to watch the start – its made me proud to be an American."
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