Barcelona World Race

The first Spanish entry in the Barcelona World Race 2007, have chosen the Catalan Guillermo Altadill, one of the most respected and experienced professional sailors in the world, to skipper Estrella Damm's boat. The Barcelona World Race will start in Barcelona on the 11th November and for the first time will see the best professional sailors from both solo and fully crewed disciplines competing against each other in teams of two, in high performance monohulls, non-stop until they return to Barcelona. During three months, the navigators will sail 25.000 miles through the most difficult and unsheltered oceans of the world in the latest generation IMOCA Open 60 monohulls. This new challenge upholds the target of perpetuating the brand Estrella Damm with the best international sporting events. In 1992 Damm was the first brewer sponsoring the Olympic Games, and recently the company has sponsored the 32nd America's Cup with the Emirates Team New Zealand and Desafio Español team. With Catalan skipper Guillermo Altadill, the campaign will benefit from a skipper born and bred in Barcelona who has circumnavigated the world an incredible six times. Altadill, a father of four, aged 45, has competed in two Volvo Ocean Races (2005/06 onboard Team Ericsson and 2001/02 onboard Assa Abloy), two Whitbread Round the World Races, The Race onboard ‘Club Med’ and was part of the crew that raced around the world on Cheyenne in 2004. He has 18 transatlantic crossings and six circumnavigations under his belt so far. He has been the Spanish champion in the Soling class and Tornado class and coached the Olympic gold medalist in Atlanta in 1996 in the Tornado class. Most recently, he was part of the German America’s Cup team, United Internet Team Germany. British sailor Neal McDonald is joining the Estrella Damm Sailing Team as Performance Technical Manager from now until the start of the Barcelona World Race. McDonald brings extensive experience to the team with his background in offshore racing at the very highest level. The team is in discussion with top-level offshore skippers and an announcement will be made in due course to confirm the co-skipper. The Estrella Damm IMOCA Open 60 has been built by the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team, who are responsible for Ellen MacArthur’s record breaking voyages, and who will manage this race campaign. The monohull is a Farr design, sistership to Jeremie Beyou’s Delta Dore, also a competitor in the Barcelona World Race. The boat took eight months to build taking approximately 22,000 hours of labour.