Barcelona World Race- 30 days to start, 11 days to opening of quayside

by Daniel Ferrando on 2 Dec 2014 Barcelona World Race 2014-15 - The countdown to the Barcelona World Race 2014-15 now stands at under a month. The double-handed, round the world regatta with no stops will set off from the Catalan capital on the 31st of December at 13:00 (GMT+1).

Now into the month of December, the teams taking part in this third edition of the competition are working hard on their final preparations ahead of the regatta start. Some are focussed on moving their boats to Barcelona and are making the most of the passage to train. Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam's Cheminées Poujoulat has made a stopover in La Coruña, Spain en route to Barcelona, to avoid taking any unnecessary risks with their yacht, as there is a windy storm on the cards for the next few days. Another team to pack in some training on the final sprint to the start is Spirit of Hungary. Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman, who recently joined the project, are taking on the Mediterranean by sailing from Trieste (Italy) to Barcelona. Other teams, such as GAES Centros Auditivos (Anna Corbella and Gerard Marín), which has just returned to the water after a series of maintenance jobs, are focussed on the final improvements and developments to their IMOCA 60s. It won't be long now before all of the boats are gathered at the Barcelona quayside...

A very oceanic winter for Barcelona
The Barcelona World Race sets off on the 31st of December, but locals and tourists alike will have the chance to enjoy the thrill of ocean sailing well ahead of the start.

From the 12th of December, all of the yachts will be on show at the city's Portal de la Pau, in a bid to bring the sport into the lives of people of Barcelona. The public will be able to witness how the teams make final preparations for the race on board their IMOCA 60s and will be able to say hello to the skippers, who will be taking on one of the planet's most gruelling challenges for over three months, in the world's wildest waters. Under the watchful eye of the statue of Christopher Columbus, the Barcelona World Race quayside will become the connection point between, Barcelona, the sea and the world.

Around the quayside, there will be other spaces open to the public, such as the Barcelona World Race Zone, including the official shop, the Barcelona World Race Pavilion, where talks and live interviews will be held, as well as live demonstrations of the virtual online regatta, THE GAME and other free activities, including an exhibition of remote-controlled boats designed and built by engineering students at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Institut Químic de Sarrià and from Elisava.

Other spaces in the city will also invite visitors to venture into the world of the Barcelona World Race, a regatta which the Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona (FNOB), the ocean sailing foundation and competition organisers, have turned into a platform for education and awareness for people of all ages. The city's Museu Marítim de Barcelona and the Museu Blau will be hosting two exhibitions centred around the regatta, showing the public how the duos of skippers live on board the yachts, how the teams are organised and what the IMOCA 60s, used for the competition, are like, among other information. The exhibition at the Museu Blau is already open and can be visited until the 30th of March 2015, whilst the exhibition at the Museu Marítim officially opens on the 10th of December and will be open until the month of April. Both exhibitions will offer content in Catalan, Spanish, English and Event website