Exhibition: ‘Competing at sea. Sailing regattas in Catalonia’

Competing at sea is an exhibition that tells the stories of regattas in Catalonia from their founding at beach clubs to their consolidation through a large number of elite athletes who participate in the major local and international regattas.

In the nineteenth century, bathing and row-boating were the only leisure activities in the sea in Catalonia. The first documented competition in Barcelona was held on 10 June 1821: a rowing competition. After that, sailing clubs started to appear  —the first one was in Tarragona in 1878— to promote row-boating and later sailing.

Sport sailing became extremely popular in the 1960s, leading to the creation of many sailing and yacht clubs, as well as fleets. The increase in the number of regattas led to a growing nautical industry, with such prominent companies as   Industrial Velera Marsal, Manufacturas Mistral and Toni Tió, among others. With the consolidation of sport sailing, elite athletes in all kinds of regattas began to appear.

Competing at sea also looks at the outstanding names in Olympic ocean sailing regattas, top-class solo regattas, the mini class and more, which have become standards for their generation and others that followed.

Catalonia is a great place for sailing, as shown by the sheer number of regattas, both local and international, held here. In fact, it also has 34,000 federated athletes, more than 27,000 of whom are students.