Across The Line

Busted Out of Barcelona: Shown here with speed is Jonathan McKee—Seattleite, Olympic silver and bronze medalist and sole American in the Barcelona Around the World race. But he and Spaniard Guillermo Altadill, the other half of team Estrella Damm, were seen limping as they reached Cape Town, where they abandoned the race. Estrella Damm’s Open 60 monohull was built by Farr Yacht Design and launched in 2007. The crew jury-rigged one broken rudder at sea but when the second kicked up, they found an onboard repair was impossible. They hoped a shore crew could fix their damaged rudders in Cape Town so they could continue their circumnavigation, which would have been McKee’s first and Altadill’s seventh. Instead the duo withdrew, just 32 days into what was supposed to be a nonstop, 25,000-mile trip from Barcelona, around the three great capes and back to the Spanish port. “You can never feel happy about stopping something that you set out to do. On a personal level my big goal was to try to finish this race, so it’s hard for me to feel happy sitting here rather than on the racecourse,” McKee said. The 2007-2008 Barcelona World Race is the first two-person, nonstop sailing race around the world. It proved to be tough on more than just Estrella Damm. At press, time only five of nine entries were still on the water, with the finish expected between February and March. McKee may make another bid in four years at the Barcelona World Race. “I really appreciate the opportunity to have participated in this event,” he said. “I’m sorry I’m now speaking in the past tense because it would be great to still be out there. But if the opportunity came to participate in the next edition, I would be very interested.”

 

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