Volvo Ocean Race

Exhibition looking at Spain's relationship with the race

AN EXHIBITION about Spain’s involvement in the Volvo Ocean Race is taking place at the event’s museum, which is situated in Alicante port.

The display contains more than four decades worth of exhibits showing the country’s role in what is one of the toughest sailing races in the world.

It looks at the history of the Spanish boats and sailors who have participated in the roundthe-world race. This includes the first Spanish crew members on foreign boats, who were Enrique Vidal Paz on B&B Italia, and Enrique Gutiérrez Zulueta on Great Britain II, during the second edition of the event in 1977-78.

The first Spanish boat to compete in the race was Licor 43 in 1981-82. Since then a further 11 vessels, including Fortunas, Galicia93´ Pescanova and MAPFRE, have all battled for overall glory.

However, the country has never won the event, with its best ever placing coming in the 2017-18 race, when the MAPFRE boat finished in second place.

The exhibition features an array of photographs, many of which are unpublished, and a selection of iconic objects, including the ship’s wheel from Galicia93´ Pescanova and the sextant from Fortuna ExtraLights boats which participated in the 1989-90 race.

Since the inaugural 1973-74 race there has been a total of 74 Spanish crew members and four reporters on board participating boats. Of these, Chuny Bermúdez de Castro has competed in seven races. Alongside Juan Vila, who has partici- pated five times, Chuny is the only Spaniard to be part of a winning crew; this was on board Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing who took first place in the 2014-15 race.

Stories from some of the race’s most memorable moments - including the aforementioned Licor 43 boat’s journey across the Atlantic with British ships and planes on their way to the Falklands War, the successful rescue of Jordi Doménech, who fell overboard from Fortuna ExtraLights whilst in the Southern Ocean, and the presence of Támara Echegoyen, the first Spanish woman to participate in the race – are also recounted in the exhibition.

Admission is free.