Fernandez Is MAPFRE’s Skipper For Volvo Ocean Race

Xabi Fernandez, the former Olympic gold medalist from Spain, has been named as the skipper of the MAPFRE for the Volvo Ocean Race for 2017-18. He won the Olympics gold in Athens in 2004 and followed it with a silver performance in the 2008 Olympics event.

Fernandez along with his partner in crime during both the Olympic triumphs, Iker Martinez, has had the experience of skippering the MAPFRE 2014-15 campaign. This time Iker will not be there to partner Fernandez as he will be focused on other professional projects.

Xabi will be leading the MAPFRE alone for the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 season, having spent the winter season helping his friends at Yacht Rental Croatia. Fernandez admits that the Volvo Ocean Race is a really tough challenge that needs both the man and the machine to be at its best always. He is very happy to be back in the MAPFRE team and thanked them for having great belief in the project.

The first thing that is on Xavi’s mind is to complete the work on the boat and take the delivery of the boat from the Lisbon Boatyards by the end of February. He said that he will be thinking of the crew only after taking delivery of the boat and would start training in Mid March at Sanxenxo. He is determined by putting a good show on the Volvo Ocean race and said that they have a solid 8 months to prepare for the race. Xavi is looking at nothing, but a very strong performance by the team that will see them in the top three positions at the end of the race in the Hague by June 2018 end.

The MAPFRE President, Antonio Huertas, said that Xavi is the best skipper that the team could think of and said that he is very much committed to MAPFRE. They are aware that Xavi will be carrying the MAPFRE name proudly all over the world.