British round-the-world sailor, Alex Thomson, has undertaken yet another breathtaking stunt with his racing yacht, the HUGO BOSS. The Skywalk is the third in a trilogy that pushes the daredevil skipper to his limits and beyond. Chasing the HUGO BOSS yacht upwind using a 33 foot kite, Thomson attaches himself to a line in the water, which is fixed to the top of the mast. It pulls tight as the speed of the yacht propels him 280 feet in the air – almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty and double the height of the yacht. At the peak of his flight, Thomson releases himself and, using only the kite, expertly controls his descent back down to the water. He lands the kiteboard in style, while wearing a perfectly cut, water-resistant BOSS suit.
Thomson is passionate about all things wind-powered, and so kite surfing was the natural choice when planning to complete the trilogy of stunts that began with the Keelwalk in 2012. “The previous two stunts that we carried out – the Mastwalk and the Keelwalk – were so exciting we just knew we couldn’t stop there. We were all in agreement; we wanted to do something even bigger and better”, Thomson comments. Videos of the Keelwalk – a challenge which involved Alex walking along the orange keel of his racing yacht, while heeled over and sailing at high speed – and the Mastwalk – which saw Alex climb the 98-foot mast of the HUGO BOSS and dive from the very top into the water – have now been viewed by more than 4.5 million people worldwide.
Thomson will compete in the pinnacle event of the Ocean Masters race Calendar – the Vendee Globe – later this year, a race which begins on November 6th. The non-stop, solo, unassisted, round the world race takes approximately 80 days to complete. In the last edition of the race, back in 2013, Thomson finished in third place. This time around he is determined to be the first Brit to win the prestigious title.
