Neal McDonald's Club Med Diary - 20/12/00

Club Med has arrived in Barcelona after a little two boat tuning on the way, Neal McDonald tells all

Since my last journal, the most notable event affecting The Race has been the abandonment of Team Philips in the North Atlantic. While the details I’ve seen are pretty scant, one thing that does appear to be the case is that Team Philips will not make the start. I feel very sorry for Pete and the rest of the crew, but I’m pleased that they all got off safely.
Things are really hotting up down here in Barcelona. The whole Race Village is beginning to hum. Three boats are here now, and with three more on the way, crowds of people are already gathering to have a look at the show.

The Monaco prologue was cancelled, unfortunately, as so many of the boats could not get to the Med due to the wild weather in the North Atlantic. Club Med had PR commitments in Monaco so we went along anyway. One of the PR sails we did had a stiff 30 knot plus breeze, and the guests on board were treated to a 38 knot sprint across Monaco Bay.



More exciting for those in the crew, was the chance to line up with Innovation Explorer on the way back to Barcelona. We had an hour or so sailing with them - the first time we have sailed alongside another boat of similar type to ours.

Having sailed by ourselves for four months or so, it’s pretty easy to convince yourself that Club Med is the fastest vessel in the world. But after many miles alongside these guys, it’s pretty clear that there is going to be a race within a race - a one design race with the three Ollier boats in the event.

The speed differences were small, if there were any - of course we felt we were faster, but no doubt Loick Peyron felt that way too! Sailing at 25 knots or more just two boat lengths apart in cats of this size and power was amazing. The chopper must have got some good footage which I’m looking forward to seeing [Editor: we already have - above!].

A little more PR sailing for us, then packing the boat and generally putting the final touches to everything is about all that remains. If it goes smoothly we should get three days off over Xmas - I’m really going to concentrate on putting on a few more kilos before setting off!