Fresh off one of the longest and most intense sailing races in the world, the Vendée Globe, the Hugo Boss racing yacht, sailed into Vancouver’s English Bay this week for a much more leisurely-paced tour of the West Coast. The Notable team was invited aboard the impressive boat for a sunset sail along with some of the city’s top fashion bloggers.
The group gathered at the Coal Harbour Marina, where we each donned a signature Hugo Boss cap, a helpful accoutrement for the winds of the open waters. The marina is too shallow for the yacht’s hull, so we boarded a waiting speedboat that whisked us away underneath the Lion’s Gate Bridge and into the bay where the boat waited in the distance.
The 60-foot custom designed yacht is everything you would expect from Hugo Boss. It’s masculine, striking and impossibly sleek. With a price tag of $3.5 million Euros, the boat was designed for pure performance, including over 20,000 individual custom components. The massive black and white sails are emblazoned with Hugo Boss’ iconic logo, making it a spectacle seen all the way from the shore.
The speedboat pulled up alongside the yacht where Skipper Alex Thomson and his team welcomed us aboard. The endless ropes, cranks, wheels and dials of the ship seemed intimidating at first, but after a quick tour the group went to work helping to raise the sails and steer the ship through English Bay. As the winds died down and the yacht drifted peacefully among the waves, we moved onto the upper deck to relax with a cider and take advantage of the stunning photo ops against the sunset.