News

Andy Meiklejohn (NZL) and Wouter Verbraak (NED) on Hugo Boss crossed the finish line during the very early hours of a breezy Barcelona night, breaking the line off the W-Hotel at 00 49 23 hrs local time (UTC +2hrs) to secure seventh place overall from the field of 14 duos which started the Barcelona World Race on 31st December 2010. Hugo Boss' elapsed time for the 25,200 miles course is  111 days 10 hours  49 mins computed to have sailed at a theoretical average of 9,42 knots.

© MMedir/FNOB

For the Kiwi-Dutch duo who were only teamed up 24 hours before the start, Verbraak as substitute for Alex Thomson who needed immediate surgery on his appendix with two days to the race start, seventh is an excellent result. They had never sailed alone on the fleet’s most powerful IMOCA 60 before starting, and struggled out of the Mediterranean and by the Canary Islands were in 14th place.

Wouter Verbraak (NED) Hugo Boss: “It was an amazing challenge, without doubt the toughest racing I have done physically and mentally, and what it boiled down to was team work. You cannot do this by yourself. It is much better to be two. It was a great race with Andy. The race is a really all about managing the ups and downs, like life. Our tough moments were when we really could not race the boat as hard as we wanted to. When we had to stop in the Falklands was a really tough time for us, because our goal was always to make this a non stop race. By Doyle Sails sailmakers came in, fixed up the sails, and the goal after that was really to sail the boat really well to the end and we did that. The best moment for us was really rounding Cape Horn. After such a tough time in the Southern Ocean and breaking sails, to turn the corner and know we were going back home to our families was an amazing moment. And now, here we are back with our families.”

Andy Meiklejohn (NZL): "It was not easy at the start in the Mediterranean. We were hoping for some light winds to learn the boat but that was a bit extreme. We would have liked to get going and be a bit more competitive, but we worked our way up through the fleet, and there were a lot of challenges after that and I think we dealt with all of those challenges.  For both of the first goal was to get around the world and that was what drove us. We wanted to finish the race. We wanted to finish it non stop. And that is why when stopped in the Falklands we tried to fix everything ourselves, that was about the first goal. Every boat faces challenges and we were no exception. “It has been a tough week with Alex’s sudden illness, but having Wouter as the substitute skipper is the best possible solution to the situation. Having sailed together before we have a strong bond, which will help us overcome the initial challenge. We’re fully focused on the task ahead and look forward to Alex stepping on board the HUGO BOSS boat as soon as he’s fit to sail.”