With light winds and scorching temperatures, the NOMEN of the 2019 Race to End HPV are being put through their paces in a different way to previous years.
Temperatures soar and with 6 crews in the race this year, competition is fiercer than ever. This is pushing the crews to exert themselves more and more, despite the debilitating conditions. A mixture of calm conditions, competitive rowers and the closeness of the crews means that they are rowing at unprecedented speeds in the Barcelona - Ibiza event.
We could in fact see our first crew arriving in Ibiza from 10am CET Wednesday morning!
No one has ever thought of NOMAN as being anything less than 100% competitive and the teams in this year's event are no exception.
Team Monex Europe have shown themselves to be well organised and having taken an early lead in the race, their continued good pace overnight has seen them maintain their 1st place status.
Less than 1 nautical mile (nm) behind in hot pursuit are Team ION Energy but they critically await a penalty from the Race Committee for failing to round the way point 25nm west south west of Barcelona. Going around this point ensures that all crews stay out of many of the main shipping lanes until later in the race and hence reduces the risk to the crews posed by other (larger) vessels. It isn't on the straight line route between the start and finish and so by failing to round the mark, Team ION Energy have received an advantage. The penalty will be decided at the end of the race by the Race Committee.
A little further back in the fleet, Team Peakside, Team GS Gives and Team Corona are trading places in the race for 3rd. Team Corona and Team Peakside are neck-a-neck with Team GS Gives a little under 5nm behind. Team Courchevel Prestige Chalets may be in last place at present but they are holding their pace and starting to claw back on the crews in front of them.
All crews have been helped by how incredibly flat the sea has been so far which the teams on the support yachts have commented on as looking like 'a mirror finish'. However that doesn't make any difference to the large commercial vessels the rowers are crossing the path of, and crews cannot let their guard down and become complacent.
The race is on.
If you are wishing to meet the crews for their arrival in Ibiza please contact us at hq@nomancampaign.org
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