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.
Credit : Th Martinez / 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.
From IMOCA Ocean Masters
