Barcelona World Race 2015
- Thread starter STSailing
- Start date
Roleur
Super Anarchist
Good lineup? I love this race, but only 7 boats? Weren't there 15 or so last time? Only Nandor Fa has a new boat and only one boat is even last generation. The only way Hugo Boss can lose is to break. Friggin' Kingfisher is racing. That thing is as old as Noah's Ark. Sailed enough miles to go to the moon and back, I think. Love the race, but this is kinda sad.
stief
Super Anarchist
Well, 80% of the fans will be able to celebrate a podium finish.
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jb5
Super Anarchist
I'm really looking forward to this one even though there are fewer boats. Still some big names in it.
Spain has 24.4% unemployment currently. Unimaginable. Just happy that they can run this race.
I think they've cut out the Cook Straight bit in NZ that was part of previous races and I saw something yesterday that looked like there would be no Ice gates, at least that's what it looked like, I'm probably wrong. The race notice says that they still allow pit stops if needed.
Good to have a race on the classic round the world route going on in my view. Just can't get into the VOR with its mickey mouse course.
Spain has 24.4% unemployment currently. Unimaginable. Just happy that they can run this race.
I think they've cut out the Cook Straight bit in NZ that was part of previous races and I saw something yesterday that looked like there would be no Ice gates, at least that's what it looked like, I'm probably wrong. The race notice says that they still allow pit stops if needed.
Good to have a race on the classic round the world route going on in my view. Just can't get into the VOR with its mickey mouse course.
LeoV
Super Anarchist
Hugo Boss, nah, Stamm and leCam.
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Roleur
Super Anarchist
You think the bow mods to Stamms new ride will allow it to keep pace with the former Virbac? I'm not up on the full mods to Stamms boat, but sounds optimistic to me.
Like I said, Hugo Boss, unless they break something. If we are lucky, at least we'll get a good race out of these two. If one of them breaks, it will be a parade.
Like I said, Hugo Boss, unless they break something. If we are lucky, at least we'll get a good race out of these two. If one of them breaks, it will be a parade.
r.finn
Super Anarchist
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Just found out that Conrad Coleman is going as Nandor Fa's co-skipper. That's great news for both of them. A little remembered fact, in the last GOR, Sam Goodchild fell overboard at the end of the second leg, and Conrad was able to retrieve him. They went on to finish first well ahead of Campaign de France and Ross Field's boat. Kind of a big deal, and nice to have someone with that experience as a co-skipper. They arrived to Barcelona from NYC a few days ago.
JeronimoII
Anarchist
nice Q&A with late comer Conrad Colman, where he mentions the MOB with Goodchild. (Crazy stuff, Sam was not wearing a lifejacket...incredible recovery from Conrad in 35 knots of breeze).
Interesting pair of skippers on Spirit of Hungary, youngest with oldest. Let's see how this one develops.
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/12/23/conrad-colman-doublehanded-non-stop-around-world/
TEXT:
The Barcelona World Race is the first and only doublehanded, non-stop, round the world race, with the third edition set to commence on December 31. Eight teams will race IMOCA 60s from Barcelona to Barcelona, putting the capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn to port and the Antarctic to starboard.
The youngest skipper of the 2014-15 edition is Conrad Colman, who hopes the race will prove a useful stepping stone for his main goal, to compete at the Vendee Globe 2016-17. That has been his target since he got into solo and shorthanded ocean racing seven years ago. Almost on a sailing boat, Conrad grew up in New Zealand, before spending four years in land-locked Colorado Springs, where he graduated in Political Science and Economics and set up an innovative bike building business.
But since 2008 the Kiwi/American has called Brittany his home, has a French fiancée and has worked as preparateur, rigger, and sailmaker for IMOCA projects. Now here he is making ready for his second ocean race around the world, aboard Spirit of Hungary, alongside Hungarian sailing legend Nandor Fa (the first non-French to compete in the Vendée Globe).
Here Conrad provides an update…
How does a semi-pro bike racer in land-locked Colorado end up in the professional shorthanded sailing circuit?
After university and co-founding my own bike business, I opted to hang a right! If you want to explore the world, you can’t allow yourself to sit around. I sold my venture, bought a 31 feet catamaran in Italy and sailed it shorthanded to England. After that, I’ve set a course for the Vendée Globe, my ultimate goal. I don’t have a plan B. I’m a sailor because it’s the only activity in the world, which groups together all the elements I need in my daily life: sport, business, adventure, and project management.
What is you national allegiance then, you hold Kiwi and American passports but speak perfect French, live and work in France and embrace the French culture?
I am very proud to be all, and none of these things at the same time. I grew up a New Zealander but I am proud of being American too without being too chest-thumpy about it. Now, I am more French than most of the English speaking sailors in solo sailing, with the exception of Damian Foxall, in fact I think and dream in French a lot of the time. I see myself as someone who can take the best of each country and culture. Kiwis have the history of doing a lot with a very little. Team New Zealand embody that for such a long time, delivering world beating performances with a fraction of the budget. The American side is big, exciting and innovative. And culturally a lot of both of these sides are found in Brittany.
What have been your progressions to get to this stage?
Like a lot of sailors before me, I began with the Mini 6.50 Class. I did my first solo transatlantic on a Mini in 2009 before moving up into the Class40 the following year to compete in the Route du Rhum. From there I linked onto the Global Ocean Race, a Class40 double-handed round the world race with stopovers. We won four of the five legs of the race, each time with a different co-skipper, and secured outright victory.
But the Global Ocean Race was not without incident.
My best and worst memory are intimately linked. On approaching New Zealand, on the second leg of the Global Ocean Race, my co-skipper, Sam Goodchild, fell overboard without a lifejacket. After 35 minutes of anguish, carrying out a search in a swell, with 35 knots of breeze, fog and virtually zero visibility, I managed to locate him. It was a hellish 35 minutes, thinking of the possibility that I could lose him. There are no words that can describe that. Even though recovering him was indescribably satisfying, I never ever again want to feel that I have someone’s life in my hands
You are joining Fa after his planned co-skipper cancelled less than a month ago. Having never raced together, how does that influence the way you will approach this race?
It’s true. But I have spent so much of my racing life sailing downwind, the Route du Rhum, racing round the world and so on, and so we can do that. But I am a big believer in getting the potential problems with manouvres out of the way. I truly believe that to be a competitive sailor you need to have all of your manouvres as second nature, so you can fully exploit your routing. You need to be able to react when you have to. So we plan to go out and doing 20 tacks or 20 gybes, back to back to back. Next week we hope to have the time to do that. So I will be walking around like a Zombie after that!
How would you describe your alliance?
We are both outsiders in the sense that he has a fantastic legacy in being the first non-French skipper to finish the Vendee Globe and I want to be the first Kiwi/American to do the Vendee Globe. We have both shaped our life around this race. Neither of us have ever worked in a big team, either as a skipper or a preparateur. We are both very flexible, very hands on and so I think that is a great foundation which might not immediately be apparent to observers.
We are the youngest guy in the race and the oldest, we have someone from New Zealand-America and someone from Hungary. Our native languages are about as far apart as you can get, and yet the way we approach things is very similar, we are both very practical and work very well together. Quite by chance we have the roots of a really great union.
- See more at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/12/23/conrad-colman-doublehanded-non-stop-around-world/#sthash.0Uk8Z7Kc.dpuf
Interesting pair of skippers on Spirit of Hungary, youngest with oldest. Let's see how this one develops.
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/12/23/conrad-colman-doublehanded-non-stop-around-world/
TEXT:
The Barcelona World Race is the first and only doublehanded, non-stop, round the world race, with the third edition set to commence on December 31. Eight teams will race IMOCA 60s from Barcelona to Barcelona, putting the capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn to port and the Antarctic to starboard.
The youngest skipper of the 2014-15 edition is Conrad Colman, who hopes the race will prove a useful stepping stone for his main goal, to compete at the Vendee Globe 2016-17. That has been his target since he got into solo and shorthanded ocean racing seven years ago. Almost on a sailing boat, Conrad grew up in New Zealand, before spending four years in land-locked Colorado Springs, where he graduated in Political Science and Economics and set up an innovative bike building business.
But since 2008 the Kiwi/American has called Brittany his home, has a French fiancée and has worked as preparateur, rigger, and sailmaker for IMOCA projects. Now here he is making ready for his second ocean race around the world, aboard Spirit of Hungary, alongside Hungarian sailing legend Nandor Fa (the first non-French to compete in the Vendée Globe).
Here Conrad provides an update…
How does a semi-pro bike racer in land-locked Colorado end up in the professional shorthanded sailing circuit?
After university and co-founding my own bike business, I opted to hang a right! If you want to explore the world, you can’t allow yourself to sit around. I sold my venture, bought a 31 feet catamaran in Italy and sailed it shorthanded to England. After that, I’ve set a course for the Vendée Globe, my ultimate goal. I don’t have a plan B. I’m a sailor because it’s the only activity in the world, which groups together all the elements I need in my daily life: sport, business, adventure, and project management.
What is you national allegiance then, you hold Kiwi and American passports but speak perfect French, live and work in France and embrace the French culture?
I am very proud to be all, and none of these things at the same time. I grew up a New Zealander but I am proud of being American too without being too chest-thumpy about it. Now, I am more French than most of the English speaking sailors in solo sailing, with the exception of Damian Foxall, in fact I think and dream in French a lot of the time. I see myself as someone who can take the best of each country and culture. Kiwis have the history of doing a lot with a very little. Team New Zealand embody that for such a long time, delivering world beating performances with a fraction of the budget. The American side is big, exciting and innovative. And culturally a lot of both of these sides are found in Brittany.
What have been your progressions to get to this stage?
Like a lot of sailors before me, I began with the Mini 6.50 Class. I did my first solo transatlantic on a Mini in 2009 before moving up into the Class40 the following year to compete in the Route du Rhum. From there I linked onto the Global Ocean Race, a Class40 double-handed round the world race with stopovers. We won four of the five legs of the race, each time with a different co-skipper, and secured outright victory.
But the Global Ocean Race was not without incident.
My best and worst memory are intimately linked. On approaching New Zealand, on the second leg of the Global Ocean Race, my co-skipper, Sam Goodchild, fell overboard without a lifejacket. After 35 minutes of anguish, carrying out a search in a swell, with 35 knots of breeze, fog and virtually zero visibility, I managed to locate him. It was a hellish 35 minutes, thinking of the possibility that I could lose him. There are no words that can describe that. Even though recovering him was indescribably satisfying, I never ever again want to feel that I have someone’s life in my hands
You are joining Fa after his planned co-skipper cancelled less than a month ago. Having never raced together, how does that influence the way you will approach this race?
It’s true. But I have spent so much of my racing life sailing downwind, the Route du Rhum, racing round the world and so on, and so we can do that. But I am a big believer in getting the potential problems with manouvres out of the way. I truly believe that to be a competitive sailor you need to have all of your manouvres as second nature, so you can fully exploit your routing. You need to be able to react when you have to. So we plan to go out and doing 20 tacks or 20 gybes, back to back to back. Next week we hope to have the time to do that. So I will be walking around like a Zombie after that!
How would you describe your alliance?
We are both outsiders in the sense that he has a fantastic legacy in being the first non-French skipper to finish the Vendee Globe and I want to be the first Kiwi/American to do the Vendee Globe. We have both shaped our life around this race. Neither of us have ever worked in a big team, either as a skipper or a preparateur. We are both very flexible, very hands on and so I think that is a great foundation which might not immediately be apparent to observers.
We are the youngest guy in the race and the oldest, we have someone from New Zealand-America and someone from Hungary. Our native languages are about as far apart as you can get, and yet the way we approach things is very similar, we are both very practical and work very well together. Quite by chance we have the roots of a really great union.
- See more at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/12/23/conrad-colman-doublehanded-non-stop-around-world/#sthash.0Uk8Z7Kc.dpuf
stief
Super Anarchist
A good article from the HB manager--interesting view of what it takes to manage a sponsorship (and that the mast walk was worth £5m in PR value) http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/news/articles/bossing-the-business
Regarding the racing,
Regarding the racing,
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jb5
Super Anarchist
Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
+1
Conrad is a legend. Youngest skipper in this race too.
I understand there've been some build issues with Spirit of Hungary - hopefully now all sorted.
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Very Lazy Jack
Member
- 95
- 41
Yeah, Fa originally planned to do the New York Barcelona race as a shakedown event for his new boat. Upon arriving to New York, they found that there was serious delamination in the hull, so bad that the boat had to be shipped back to Hungary. They cut open the hull and found that the core material was wrongly specd, so they had to remove most of the outer layers, replace the core and relaminate. So he didn't have much chance to do sea trials with the new boat, except during the Adritaic - Barcelona cruise in the past days.
Nandor said that he counted on the boat being stronger than the others, so he could push it harder. It will be interesting to watch how this works out. He certainly has the balls to push it hard.
Your Mom
Super Anarchist
When are these guys likely to be rounding Cape Horn? I'm wondering if they might be there at the same time as the Volvo boats in their Leg 5.
mad
Super Anarchist
JeronimoII
Anarchist
skipper's press conference today:
http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/news/news/at-48-hours-before-the-start-skippers-show-their-game-faces-at-final-press-conference
http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/news/news/at-48-hours-before-the-start-skippers-show-their-game-faces-at-final-press-conference
Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
I didn't realise how under-prepared this team actually is. Funny to hear Conrad and Nandor interviewing each other.
They have a great attitude, but I can't see this campaign being on the pace up front. Hopefully it all holds together, they do well and I'm wrong.
They have a great attitude, but I can't see this campaign being on the pace up front. Hopefully it all holds together, they do well and I'm wrong.
Very Lazy Jack
Member
- 95
- 41
Under prepared, I'm not sure. Under funded, definitley. Descpite the fact that Hungary isn't particularly noted as a great ocean faring nation, Nandor has a good track record in ocean racing. I think this is his third or fourth self-built 60 footer. He built the first one for the 1990 BOC Challenge, which he came in last, but did finish.
His very good at self-marketing and securing sponsorship, but still I'm sure his team has the least funding.
And, as some jokingly say, he is good at floating as his familiy name 'Fa' means wood in Hungarian.
