Ocean sailing

Abstract

Ocean sailing is one of the biggest challenges for intrepid and adventurous sailors looking for a special and heroic way to experience the sea. For centuries, there has been a strong desire to discover seas, oceans and lands beyond the infinite line of the horizon. New sailing routes have been opened aboard sailboats full of thrill-hungry sailors. Undoubtedly, a legacy that has inspired men and women of the 20th and 21st centuries to traverse the routes in the form of major sporting events such as the Vendée Globe and the Whitbread Round the World Race. Otherwise, these regattas have become an experimental field in the use of advanced technology.

In recent years, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona has been dedicating efforts and hopes to recover the historical memory of water sports in Catalonia, including ocean sailing. Valuable donations are being received with thousands of photographs, which are being classified, digitized and documented. Some can now be consulted from the online collection on the website https://www.mmb.cat/fons-i-collecciones/coleccio-en-linia/. A significant part of these ocean photographs, in addition to documenting milestones full of the spirit of overcoming and love for the sea, as well as cutting-edge technology, has the added value that the crews themselves have taken during the voyages, to the good and the bad ones. They are a first-rate witness, with the clear intention of their protagonists to narrate through the image what will need to be remembered and documented about their exploits at sea.