Alex Thomson recreates famous keel walk
- Wed, 1 Feb 2012
- Comments (6)
Alex Thomson made one of sailing's most iconic images when he was photographed walking the keel of his yacht Hugo Boss.
There was speculation that the image had been edited to place a suited Thomson on the exposed keel of his 60ft racing yacht, but a new video proves otherwise.
Thomson, who is the youngest skipper to win a round the world race, took to the Solent recently to try his famous keel walk one more time.
"Everyone always assumes it was ‘Photoshopped' and I was determined to prove them wrong, so we decided to try again," he said.
Getting the conditions right for the keel walk wasn't simple. It took 18 knots of wind, a slight sea state, a precise sailing speed and a cool-headed skipper to pull the stunt off, Alex explained.
"We'd wake up one day and the conditions would look just right," he said, "so we'd sound the alarm and get the boat prepped, bring in the jet ski guy, the RIB driver, the photographer, the camera guys... I'm in the suit, ready to go...and the wind drops. It was hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait."
Alex Thomson made his original keel walk back in 2009.
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Latest comments
Ken McKelvie
February 04 20:22
Bonkers!!!! But brilliant, what a stunt, just as well it was his Dad's suit!
Jack
February 04 16:04
Incredible bit of sailing the guy on the keel was pretty good to
DavidH
February 03 22:50
Excellent, not dangerous, he did it because he could!
Dave George
February 03 18:18
Give the man a Mintie!