At 2049 GMT yesterday evening, Monday 11th February, Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall steered their Open 60 Paprec-Virbac 2 across the finish line to win the Barcelona World Race in a time of 92 days 8 hours 49 minutes 49 seconds.

Their 28,329 mile journey, non-stop around the planet, has taken exactly three months, and been an impressive display of speed and seamanship.

Dick on Foxall: “The key factor of this race is the co-skipper -it took a long time to decide before Damian and it was important for me to select a good one. I had a good feeling and this has made the difference. It is what is interesting in double handed racing.

“My image of Damian has not really changed since the beginning. He is a very complete character – things are black and white with him. I don’t know many people that do what he does with such intensity – and it is always very marked, he says things as he feels them, what he thinks, whether it is good or bad. It is a great advantage, as things are always very clear, and he applies the same to himself. He does things 100% and carries them through to the very end. It has been the same since the beginning.

“Most of our discussions were about strategy and the route, something I am very passionate about. Once we had decided it we got on with it. Perhaps what has made a difference was our clear, willing choices as a team and very marked. The strategy stayed as we had decided together. I think that is a great quality, and that is the most important thing.”

Foxall on Dick: “He is a very dependable, amazingly driven, and it isn’t that it surprised me but I didn’t realise quite how much. He has almost an excess of patience which is a great advantage in a sailing boat, as it’s impossible to race as fast as you want ever, and an important characteristic to have.

“But you also need the drive, strength and tenacity to match that patience – it is all ok to want to go faster but you have to do everything to make that happen – it is 24 hours a day for three months. He is one of the only people I have met who can maintain that level of drive.”

With Barcelona World Race winners Paprec-Virbac 2 safely home it is now the turn of Hugo Boss to begin to feel something close to relief as they work their way along the Spanish coast and up into the Mediterranean.

After horrid conditions in the Straits of Gibraltar where Andrew Cape reported gusts of fifty knots and “their worst night in the race” the black boat is now making modest progress at nine knots and currently 373 miles from Barcelona, due to arrive sometime tomorrow evening (13th February).