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Barcelona World Race

Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella take 6th

Corbella becomes the 1st Spanish woman ever to sail and race non stop around the world

mercredi 13 avril 2011Redaction SSS [Source RP]

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Unstoppable, unshakable duo Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella sailed into the record Record #sailingrecord books this morning when their Owen Clarke designed IMOCA Imoca #IMOCA Open 60 GAES Centros Auditivos broke the finish line of the Barcelona World Race Barcelona World Race #barcelonaworldrace in sixth place, stopping the clock at 07.17.18hrs UTC for an elapsed time of 102 days, 19 hours, 17 minutes and 18 seconds.

They were totally united in their joy as they crossed the finish line on the bow of Caffari’s boat which had already taken her once around the world in 2008-9. The morning was chill with dark grey clouds hanging low over the Barcelona skyline as the GAES Chicas sailed their final miles upwind, but their smiles radiated their sheer happiness from several miles before the line : “We were unable to sleep last night because of the nerves and emotions.” Confessed Anna Corbella this morning, jubilant to have completed the Barcelona World Race Barcelona World Race #barcelonaworldrace .

Caffari, who has more experience of such race and record Record #sailingrecord finishes, was nonetheless rendered almost speechless by the warmth of the welcome offered her by Corbella’s home city.

Corbella becomes the first Spanish woman ever to sail and race non stop around the world, while the unstoppable Caffari maintains her remarkable record Record #sailingrecord in the extreme discipline of short-handed and solo ocean racing, by completing her fourth circumnavigation since she first went all the way around the globe in 2004-5. No other sailor in the world has sailed around the world more often in the last six years !

Dee Caffari extends her world record to become the only woman ever to have completed four circumnavigations, adding a second non-stop eastabouts racing passage to her sixth place in the epic 2008-9 Vendée Globe. And she returns to Barcelona a much more balanced individual having sailed twice westabouts, upwind against the prevailing winds and current, and now twice ‘ the right way’ eastbouts – Cape of Good Hope to Cape Leeuwin to Cape Horn and back to Barcelona. And Caffari has her sights absolutely set on a fifth, as she targets the 2012-13 Vendée Globe.

On completing the Barcelona World Race Barcelona World Race #barcelonaworldrace , Dee commented : "I’m very happy and very proud of what we achieved. Four boats didn’t make it and we did make it, and we did it non-stop which is what we wanted to do. And we had other challenges to overcome, and we did all of that. I think overall performance-wise we’ve got to be happy, we’ve achieved something that’s quite special and we can’t forget that not everybody gets to sail around the world non-stop. But it’s still in me, I’ve still got to get a top five place !"

The vastly experienced Caffari paired up with Corbella a little over a year ago on a fast track programme which was designed to step the Catalan former Olympic 470 dinghy aspirant turned Mini sailor up to complete a full racing circumnavigation on this race.

The duo’s training programme went in at the deep end, dealing with one of the biggest Atlantic storms of winter 2010, took in several passages back and forth from Barcelona to England, as well as last summer’s Vuelta España a Vela round Spain race. But they had formed a solid bond well before this race started and together they have sailed a solid, well considered race which showed Caffari’s increased confidence in her reliable boat since her Vendée Globe, and often proved that the duo could match many of the duos who finished above them.

Anna Corbella spoke of their partnership, saying "We really developed a really special relationship. I thought at the beginning that living together was going to be the most difficult experience in this sailing round the world. But you know, you haven’t got any other chance, so you depend on each other, you have to help each other, and that develops a very special relationship, and in fact I was surprised. We had a very, very good time, no arguments, same objectives, always pursuing the same goal, so it was great.”

They were slowed in the return up the Atlantic by having to make a composite repair to a forward ring frame which forms part of the forward ballast tank, but still had pulled back 550 miles on the fourth placed duo in their early part of the Atlantic.

Unfortunately for Corbella and Caffari a longstanding duel since the entry to the South Atlantic with rivals on Hugo Boss, Andy Meiklejohn and Wouter Verbraak, was finally terminated when the Kiwi-Dutch duo had to divert into the Falkland Islands to repair their damaged sails, but not until after an incredible match race passage around Cape Horn where the two boats which are usually domiciled in the same English marina, rounded the rugged Cape together.

Ironically the duel reprised a Vendée Globe tussle over the same stretch of the course between Caffari and Brian Thompson sailing a previous incarnation of the powerful Juan Kouyoumdjian designed Hugo Boss. (ex Pindar)

The duo become the fourth pair to complete the race non-stop, retaining Caffari’s excellent record for great boat preparation and reliability.

Since her 2004-5 Global Challenge race, Caffari’s record has been incredible especially considering she made a quick transition to the IMOCA Imoca #IMOCA Open 60 only in 2007, a complete culture change from her 178 days solo against the winds and current record of 2005-6.

GAES Centros Auditivos crossed the finish line to complete their Barcelona World Race at 07.17.18hrs UTC on Monday April 13th. Their elapsed time for the course was 102 days, 19 hours, 17 minutes and 18 seconds, an average speed for the course of 10.219kts for the 25,200 miles theoretical course. They sailed an actual course of 28,653 miles, at an average 11.61 knots.

- Press info Barcelona World Race / www.barcelonaworldrace.org



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