Didac Costa, the Vendée Globe’s Spanish competitor and ambassador of the Barcelona World Race
After months of effort, Didac Costa and his team will soon be setting sail for Les Sables d'Olonne where, on 6 November 2016, he will be the only Spanish sailor to take the start of the Vendée Globe 2016. Aboard One Planet, One Ocean he will be the ambassador for the Barcelona World Race 2018/19 and will be perpetuating the race’s scientific projects by virtue of the agreement between UNESCO and the FNOB projects. With its support of the project, the FNOB is reaffirming one of its main objectives: the promotion of offshore sailing in Spain.
In a bid to complete this Everest of offshore racing, Barcelona and Didac are taking the baton passed on by the three Spaniards who previously participated the race: Joseluis Ugarte (1993), Unai Basurko (2008) and Bubi Sanso (2012).
Xosé-Carlos Fernandez, General Manager of the FNOB, highlighted the importance of Didac’s project and has ensured him of FNOB’s support for this project: "We’ve contributed to Didac’s project in a race like the Vendée Globe because, together with the Barcelona World Race, it is one of the mainstays of the World IMOCA Ocean Masters Championship. We want other projects to be able to integrate the oceanic circuit. Our aim is to develop the professionalisation of the class and the sailors".
It’s thanks to teamwork that Didac’s boat will be able to take the start of the Vendée Globe 2016, and it’s with this same boat that Didac secured fourth place in the last Barcelona World Race alongside Aleix Gelabert. This boat is one of the most reliable. It is none other than the legendary Kingfisher originally designed for Ellen MacArthur.
Didac and One Planet, will be the ambassadors of the Barcelona World Race, the double-handed race around the world, whose next edition will set off in January 2019. Together with the Vendée Globe, the Barcelona World Race forms the bedrock of the World IMOCA Ocean Masters Championship. During the race, Didac will continue with the scientific projects by agreement between UNESCO and the FNOB, and in the continuity of what he has done with Aleix Gelabert on the last Barcelona World Race. “This scientific experiment in the Barcelona World Race was a great success and we’re keen to recreate that now. We’re going to measure the salinity, the temperature, the colour and the transparency of the water, as well as the amount of micro-plastics. We’ll be launching an Argo beacon too".
Teams info
IMOCA Race Report #1 I The Transat CIC - Day 2
In this new Race Report, Romain Attanasio, skipper of Fortinet-Best Western, shares his thoughts on race strategy and the weather challenges encountered at sea and those to come.
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The IMOCA skippers in The Transat CIC from Lorient to New York could get away without much upwind sailing over the next few days, as they head west across the Atlantic, according to Sam Goodchild, the Vulnerable skipper …
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