Into its second edition, the Barcelona World Race starts from this historic Catalan city on New Year’s Eve. With 25,000 miles of racing ahead, 10 of the 15 yachts have, once again, placed their trust in Future Fibres’ rigging for this demanding event.

Future Fibres is supplying an incredible 2 kilometers of rigging for the competing boats, ranging from full lateral sets to code cables and aft rigging. Through our long association with the IMOCA fleet, we have been developing and testing our latest range of products over a number of years, always searching for the most durable, optimised solution. This race is no different. Hugo Boss, Aviva, Veolia and Groupe Bel have been instrumental in the development of our brand new FlexC and TSC (thermoset) carbon products over the last 10 months in the lead up to the race.  They experienced the performance benefits and above all, in conjunction with our testing, built confidence in this technologically advanced product for use in a non-stop round the world event.

Andy Meiklejohn, co-Skipper of Hugo Boss explains: ‘The performance of FlexC is quite staggering. Its flexible nature makes it almost indistinguishable from a dry fibre cable (PBO, Dyneema, etc.). This is ideal for our type of yacht where boom and batten impact in the case of a crash jibe are always a real risk. Yet, FlexC is still stiffer than any other suitable product for aft rigging when comparing size and weight.’

Reliability is the buzz word of the IMOCA scene. Future Fibres does not only evoke that in our product but also in our customer’s experience when dealing with our team. We were the natural choice for Central Lechera Asturiana to manage and supply a full set of rigging, after cruelly breaking their mast on delivery to Barcelona, 28 days before the start. Future Fibres´ technical team, lead by David Barnaby, was instrumental in sourcing a suitable replacement rig whilst interfacing with our Valencia based production facility to build the new rigging. David comments: ‘Bringing a mast and rigging package together, in the most literal sense, within 2 weeks was no mean feat. From a technical perspective, finding a suitable rig, adapting it to suit the boat, engineering and building the rigging and then delivering it to the team within such a short timeframe has been a major challenge. The guys in the factory did an amazing job pulling this off, working day and night while still maintaining our high quality standards.’

Supplying Carbon, Dyneema, Kevlar and PBO stays in an array of applications to the competitors of the Barcelona World Race, once again, reinforces our “Right Fibre for the Right Application” approach to composite rigging. Each of these fibres has their own specific strength making them the right choice for their given task. Having the ability to supply unbiased recommendations on fibre choice, makes us the natural partner for teams that seek to push the boundaries of rigging technology. In turn, the IMOCA 60 fleet presents the ideal test bed for Future Fibres and a corner stone for our ongoing search for the rigging solutions of tomorrow.

Follow the BWR @ www.barcelonaworldrace.com and keep in touch with the FF rigged boats @ Future Fibres FACEBOOK.

Into its second edition, the Barcelona World Race starts from this historic Catalan city on New Year’s Eve. With 25,000 miles of racing ahead, 10 of the 15 yachts have, once again, placed their trust in Future Fibres’ rigging for this demanding event.

Future Fibres is supplying an incredible 2 kilometers of rigging for the competing boats, ranging from full lateral sets to code cables and aft rigging. Through our long association with the IMOCA fleet, we have been developing and testing our latest range of products over a number of years, always searching for the most durable, optimised solution. This race is no different. Hugo Boss, Aviva, Veolia and Groupe Bel have been instrumental in the development of our brand new FlexC™ and TSC (thermoset) carbon products over the last 10 months in the lead up to the race.  They experienced the performance benefits and above all, in conjunction with our testing, built confidence in this technologically advanced product for use in a non-stop round the world event.

Big congratulations go out to the Future Fibres rigged ICAP Leopard, achieving its third record in a month yesterday in the Round the Island Race. The Mike Slade owned maxi became the fastest monohull to complete the 55 mile course, beating the record he set himself back in 2001. Crossing the finishing line in under four hours, Mike and the crew shaved 12 minutes off his old record and added another trophy to their ever expanding cabinet in the process.

Congratulations also go to Mike Golding and the Ecover team for winning the Open 60 class, although sympathies have to go out to Alex Thomson, who was disqualified following a collision between Hugo Boss and the Farr 45 Atomic, just before the race. Alex, who was joined on board by Formula one ace Lewis Hamilton, managed to finish first in class, despite his bowspirit being broken in the accident. The rest of the Open 60 pack, all using full sets of PBO rigging from Future Fibres, was made up of high profile teams Artemis, Aviva and Pindar. Artemis, after a battle with Aviva lasting for most of the race, finished just behind Ecover, with a time of 4:53:18, very closely followed by Dee Caffari in Aviva.

In the other classes; 'Full Pelt', skippered by Stephen Fein and sporting a full set of Future Fibres PBO, took the Yeoman Challenge Trophy in the highly competitive IRC Group 2, with a corrected time of 6:50:02.

Future Fibres founder Tom Hutchinson Commented: "It was a great race this year; the wind was good, 15 to 20 knots blowing southwest, so there was some excellent sailing to be had. The record breaking number of entries this year was great, but as we saw with Alex, it made things a little tricky at times! Leopard has had an amazing month and, after the BMW Round Island Yacht Race last week, she seems to be close to untouchable at the moment."

Future Fibres has delivered a complete set of replacement PBO cables for Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss, after his Open 60 was demasted by a fishing vessel just two weeks ago.

Since the collision on the 17th October, Thomson has pulled together a work force of more than 35 to ensure he is ready for the Vendee Globe start on the 8th November 2008. On top of this, Thomson turned to his mast and rigging suppliers in his quest to be 100 percent repaired and ready in time. Future Fibres, Hugo Boss' sole rigging supplier, knew it could help and even before the call came through was working on pulling the information together to build the vital replacement cables.

Giles Waterhouse, Hugo Boss' rigger, commented on the huge operation to get Hugo Boss back in action. "We've been doing everything in our power to repair Hugo Boss and have her ready in time," he said, showing appreciation for his teammates and also the suppliers who have come to their aid. "Future Fibres have been amazing. The moment they heard about the accident they got in touch with us and told us they'd do whatever it takes to get Hugo Boss to the start line of the Vendée." One of the benefits of choosing Future Fibres in an emergency like this is the company's ability to replicate – to the millimetre – the original cables on Hugo Boss which were damaged when the mast came down. Technical sales manager Miles Amin comments: "The moment we heard about the accident, before we even knew if Hugo Boss was fixable, we got all the data together and got ourselves ready to run whenever Hugo Boss got in touch. We had the call from Alex on Monday afternoon, the 20th October, with a goal of having the new cables all ready for re-rigging the mast on the 29th."

"Because each cable going out of the factory has its own unique ID number and specification passport, detailing its exact length at load, it is fairly simple for Alex to get straight back into the rig tune that he had before the accident. There's going to be very little, if any, testing time before the start so Alex needs to know that his rig is set up properly when he sails off around the world. That's exactly why we have all the systems in place – for moments just like this."

One of Thomson's rivals in the Vendee Globe is Brian Thompson (no relation), skipper of Bahrain Team Pindar, and another Future Fibres' client. Brian, who had his own emergency earlier in the year when stepping the rig into his Open 60, commented: "We ordered our first set of rigging, and gave Future Fibres the usual two or three-month lead time, but then discovered that the two outrigger bobstays didn't fit. Not Future Fibres' fault – the specified measurements were wrong in the first place. We were really up against it to get the rig working; had to take the rig out again, put it on the ground and wait for the new bobstays to turn up. Future Fibres turned them round within the week, not many rigging suppliers could do that."

Future Fibres has invested heavily in its service infrastructure to ensure it has the capability to fulfil urgent requests from race teams, wherever in the world they may be. The discontinuous nature of the company's PBO rigging means single cables can be produced and replaced in situ within days of an event and typically with no need for a crane or heavy lifting machinery.