© DPPI
On 1st June off Manhattan, several duos will be setting sail at the start of the new "New York – Barcelona Race", the first event in the new IMOCA Ocean Masters World Championship. For the moment, the following teams are officially confirmed: Alex Thomson/Pepe Ribes (Hugo Boss), Marc Guillemot/Morgan Lagravière (Safran), Guillermo Altadill/José Muñoz (Neutrogena), Anna Corbella/Gerard Marin (GAES Centros Auditivos) and Nandor Fa/Marcell Goszleth (Spirit of Hungary). The Italian skipper, Alessandro di Benedetto (Team Plastique) is also likely to be part of the event.
Six crews are already lined up and are likely to be joined by others in this international line-up. “The internationalization of the IMOCA class and its development with new events and new locations attracting new skippers and partners is part of the strategy put in place by OSM,” stressed Sir Keith Mills, founder of the Open Sports Management company, the organizer of the New York – Barcelona Race. A race, which represents a warm up before the two major events on the 2014 Ocean Masters calendar: The Route du Rhum (start on 2nd November) and the Barcelona World Race (which begins on 31st December).
Between New York and Barcelona, the 3700-mile race course can be divided into two sections: the North Atlantic crossing to the Straits of Gibraltar, then the passage into the Mediterranean, where the crews will have to deal with the tactical challenge of sailing 525 miles along the coast of Spain. Apart from trying to win the race, the duos will be attempting to improve on the course record set in 2010 by Alex Pella, Pepe Ribes and Stan Schreyer aboard the IMOCA 60 Estrella Damm with a time of 12 days, 6 hours 03 minutes and 48 seconds.
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