British sailor, Alex Thomson, has begun his debut race onboard the new HUGO BOSS racing yacht in the Transat Jacques Vabre.
Thomson and his co-skipper – fellow Briton Neal McDonald – departed from Le Havre, France to begin the double-handed 4,350mile race, which finishes in Salvador, Brazil.
In what is the 14th edition of the classic offshore race, a record 29 yachts within the IMOCA class will compete, each looking to finish on top in the famous ‘coffee route’ sprint.
The race marks the first time that fans of Skipper Thomson and his team will witness the new HUGO BOSS boat in competitive action, following the yacht’s launch just last month on The River Thames in London.
More than two years in design and build, the team’s yacht is the result of 80,000 hours of labour by more than 100 designers, architects, engineers and boat builders. The boat also features new technologies, developed alongside with the team’s Technology Partner Nokia Bell Labs.
In 2016, Thomson broke the British record in the solo, non-stop, unassisted Vendée Globe, topping the third-place finish he secured in the 2012-13 edition of the race. Co-skipper, Neal McDonald, is a seven-time Volvo Ocean Race competitor, and former Olympic sailor, with more than 30 years’ experience in professional sailing.
“This is a learning and testing opportunity, first and foremost,” says Alex. “The race will give us the opportunity to understand just what this boat is capable of, and it will undoubtedly inform the next stages of our development as we head towards the Vendée Globe next year.”
The boat has been built with that very goal in mind: to win the 2020 Vendée Globe, a race that remains one of the toughest sporting challenges in the world today, one which has only ever been won by a French sailor. With just two competitive races in the team’s schedule before then (the Transat Jacques Vabre and the New York-Vendée race in June 2020), the British team plans to maximise every available opportunity to familiarise themselves with what they hope will be a boat worthy of Vendée Globe gold.
“We of course know the Transat Jacques Vabre very well,” Alex continues. “We finished second in this race in both 2003 and 2015. However, this time around – with a new boat – the goal is to reach the finish line with the boat in good condition, and with a great deal of knowledge gained along the way. If we can do that, then I believe we place ourselves in a very good position for 2020.”
The new HUGO BOSS is one of five new generation IMOCAs in action in the Transat Jacques Vabre.