Heineken
Cape Horn
Expedition
Cape Horn is the most famous of
all yachting landmarks. Hardened
seafarers yearn to pass the Horn and
mark it off as one of life's major
achievements.
When the Whitbread fleet passed
Cape Horn at the beginning of March
this historic landmark was once again
the focus of attention world-wide.
Heineken, as the main global
sponsor of the Whitbread Round the
World Race, has been a major force in
supporting the work of the television
pool. Their support of the television
and photographic expedition to Cape
Horn was an extension of this.
Negotiations with the Chilean Navy,
who administer this inhospitable part
of the world, began several years ago.
The expedition coincided with two
other multi hull yachts racing non
stop round the world. Enza (New
Zealand) and Lyonnaise (France) are
attempting to break the fastest
circumnavigation of the world and
are currently over 48 hours ahead of
the record. By combining technical
team and resources, costs for both
groups were kept in check - leaving
more budget for flying hours.
The ten Whitbread yachts equip
ped with the BT Yacht Video System
were requested to issue reports using
their own on-board Sony Hi-8 came
ras and transmitted by digitised signal
on Inmarsat A to the dedicated
Whitbread desk at Reuters.
A helicopter flew from Puerto
Williams to the Cape and landed at
the Navy helipad and waited to see
Intrum Justitia (Eur) come into view
about 3 miles away.
The footage of this and the other
yachts was then flown back to Punta
Arenas where the exhaustive process
of editing and film processing began.
Satellite feeds, made on a dish espe
cially adapted for use by the TV pool,
of both video and stills footage were
then sent across the world using the
Reuters news feed to a potential total
viewing audience of 650 million peo
ple. Over 75% of the images using
graphics had the Heineken Trophy
logo prominently displayed on screen.
The chairman of the TV pool was
delighted with the results. "We have
got some fantastic pictures from the
Horn. Really outstanding work and it
seems that with all the problems this
part of the world can provide, our
team of professionals have come
together and we have some outstand
ing footage. Three cheers to
Heineken for their considerable
assistance and support."
