Excitement in Portal de la Pau, Barcelona for the arrival of Fòrum Marítim Català

Fòrum Marítim Català took 112 days, 07 hours, 17 minutes and 24 seconds to complete the course, of some 25,200 miles, theoretically, at an average speed of 9.35 knots. In actual fact, the skippers sailed 28,662 miles, at an average speed of 10.63 knots.

 

This was the first double-handed round the world regatta both for Gerard Marín and Ludovic Aglaor. 

The Catalan skipper has also become the youngest skipper in this edition of the regatta to complete the course. This is the second circumnavigation of the globe for Ludovic.

 

Excitement simmered in Barcelona this evening as the city eagerly awaited the arrival of Fòrum Marítim Català, the eighth entry to finish the double-handed round the world race. 

 

Gerard Marín, 29 and from the town of Figueras, Spain and Breton skipper Ludovic Aglaor both said how touched they were by the number of people out to meet them as they came in to Portal de la Pau. Once across the finishing line, Marín highlighted that during the 112 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes and 24 seconds of the race “there were many good and bad moments". Among those he recalled was one of the first planes for the boat at the height of the Canaries.  “We had lots of breeze and we were planing along fiercely". Then there was the departure from Wellington, New Zealand, where the team stopped of to repair the water purifying system.“It was an unfortunate stop, but we sailed well". Not to forget the moment they "crossed Cape Horn, of course, a Cape one dreams of".

 

Aglaor touched on three special moments: "The Pacific was really fantastic. The start was also great. The other great moment was ten days ago, because we didn't think we'd finish this early. We were at the Canaries and we saw the chance to accelerate abs to reach Gibraltar sooner. We thought we'd be finishinh at the beginning of May". 

The Catalan skipper, Marin, is the youngest skipper to finish this second edition of the Barcelona World Race and he recognised the "big jump" he has mafe from sailing in a Mini to stepping up onto an IMOCA Open 60 and from solo to sailing with another skipper:“The jump from Mini to IMOCA is a tricky one. They are two completely different worlds. The Mini is more permissive, it lets you make more mistakes, whereas here mistakes come with a hefty cost. Breakages are different. Sailing double-handed is also a big change. I did exactly as I pleased on the Mini and here you have to share the experience and give and take where necessary". Aglaor also said that in that sense “some of the difficulty is getting used to each other's habits".

 

President of the Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona, Pere Alcober, was there to welcome the crew back to the city. He was accompanied by Jesús Turró, President of Spain's Royal National Cruising Association, as well as José María Martín Puertas, Vice-President of the RFEV, Spain's sailing federation; Toni Tió, President of Fòrum Marítim Català, and Tomàs Gallart, President of the Cataln Ports Association.

 

Fòrum Marítim Catala is the former Kingfisher, known later as Educación Sin Fronteras with which Albert Bargués and Servane Escoffier completed the first edition of the Barcelona World Race, finishing in fifth place. In early 2010 the boat was totally overhauled and refitted with the latest IMOCA class innovations. It is an Owen-Clarke Design Studio model, built in 2000 in New Zealand, which Dame  Ellen MacArthur skippered to victory in the EDS Challenge 2001 and the Route du Rhum 2002, finishing second in the Vendée Globe 2000-2001.