Steve White has announced his intention to break the current world record for circumnavigating single-handed, non-stop the ‘wrong way’, against the prevailing winds and currents. Steve plans to buy and sail a Volvo Open 70, which would usually be crewed by ten people.

Steve says:

‘After the amazing experience of the 2008 Vendée Globe, it seemed like the right time to focus my attention on this record that I have been thinking about for a long time, and which fits in nicely before the next Vendée Globe in 2012. The record is acknowledged as probably the hardest and certainly the most gruelling record in sailing, and I am under no illusions about the enormity of the task in hand, both of sailing upwind and against the current in the Southern Ocean, and about the power and size of the boat we have chosen. Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is a legend and his record will be tough to beat, but I think it is achievable’

Taking place this winter, the attempt would mark the 40th anniversary of the original record set by Sir Chay Blyth (CBE BEM) on ‘British Steel’, who embarked on the epic journey described by The Times in 1970 as the ‘Impossible Voyage’. The current record for completing the 22,000 mile course is 122 days, 14 hours and 4 minutes, and is held by Frenchman Jean Luc Van Den Heede.

Sir Chay Blyth CBE, BEM commented:

‘It’s wonderful that Steve is planning to attempt what many regard as the ultimate sailing challenge. Hundreds have completed the voyage following the classic Eastabout route but doing this in reverse is a quantum leap removed, which is why only 5 people including Mike Golding and Dee Caffari have tried it. It takes a special character to tackle the trip and Steve is an extremely experienced yachtsman who I believe has the right skills, tenacity and determination to set a new World record.’ When asked if he would be tempted back to re-trace his footsteps Chay said, ‘Not a hope in hell.’

Steve is quoted as looking for a budget for buying the boat, preparing it, support and sponsor activation of £1.4 million. It’s a big bet to take on success of the endeavour and will be tough to find before the weather window of October or November.

Steve added:

‘I have long pondered this record since reading both Chay’s and Mike Golding’s books on their respective attempts. With a very successful Vendée Globe behind me, and a team with a wealth of experience now in place, I am confident I can do this record justice. I really am more excited about this than I have been about anything else, and I am very much looking forward to crossing the start line. I will leave between October and December this year, depending on the arrival of a suitable weather window, and how soon we attract a sponsor’.

More Record Attempt News…

The same format applies to the VELUX 5 OCEANS race, which has announced the dates of the starts in the 2010/11 edition of the race. The race will start and end in the French port of La Rochelle and visit Cape Town in South Africa, Wellington in New Zealand, Salvador in Brazil and Charleston in the USA.

• Ocean Sprint 1: La Rochelle to Cape Town – 7,500 nautical miles. Start date: October 17
• Ocean Sprint 2: Cape Town to Wellington – 7,000 nautical miles. Start date: December 12
• Ocean Sprint 3: Wellington to Salvador – 7,400 nautical miles. Start date: February 6
• Ocean Sprint 4: Salvador to Charleston – 4,000 nautical miles. Start date: April 10
• Ocean Sprint 5: Charleston to La Rochelle – 3,600 nautical miles. Start date: May 14

While adding stopovers and time to the race adds cost, sponsors can activate campaigns in a wider variety of markets than a n0n-stop race.

VELUX 5 OCEANS race director David Adams said:

For sponsors, there are opportunities for international media, hospitality and promotions in some of the world’s most spectacular harbour cities. For spectators, there are more opportunities to meet the inspirational skippers at the various ports, and to watch the spectacular Sprint starts and finishes, whether ‘live’ or via the media or internet.”

“The VELUX 5 OCEANS race management team is working with our city partners to deliver high quality stopovers for skippers, providing world class services, global media coverage and reducing costs as much as possible across the board.”

More VELUX 5 OCEANS News…

With Groupama and Banque Populaire V setting new benchmarks every day, Bruno Peyron – Three times holder of the Jules Verne Trophy, has decided to relaunch “The Race”. The Race is described as a non-stop crewed race around the world without outside assistance and without limits.

After several months of studies, some careful thinking and after consulting the main potential competitors, a second edition of the race around the world for the G-class (Giant) boats is planned for 2013-2014, starting from a port in Southern Europe.

Bruno Peyron, who took some time to think about this before coming to a decision explains:

“As I’ve been able to stand back and gain some perspective since I last took part in the Jules VerneTrophy, there are several things I noticed that led me to take this decision to relaunch The Race. First, since the recent America’s Cup that we have just seen, we can conclude that we French are no longer alone in the world of multihulls and that is excellent news. We are entering a new era.

We can see too that since The Race, 12 giant multihulls have been built, including four in the past three years. So today there are certainly enough boats of sufficient quality for us to propose this event relaunch to their skippers and partners, without counting any new multihulls, which may be built following on from this by 2013 or 2014.

I have noticed that some major brands have been looking at the possibilities offered by the Volvo Ocean Race, which I can fully understand, but this does indicate that there is simply no alternative international race for multihulls. And just to conclude, others around me have become aware of this and share this feeling and my discussions with the leading G-class skippers have led me to move things forward in this direction.

It’s certainly an idea that captures the imagination, but once again, there seems to be little strategy or co-ordination between competing classes and organisers. While the proposed event as planned would not clash with the Volvo Ocean Race (an important consideration for the Groupama team), it does offer sponsors yet another alternative and cut the sailing sponsorship pie thinner.

The new Race would seem to go head to head with the Multi One Design Race that Michel Desjoyeaux has announced he will enter. Those in the sailing bubble can argue the difference between one-design and open no-limit design as much as they want, but for sponsors and the public, it just complicates the issue. As we have said before, just because there is a gap on the matrix of solo v crewed, monhull v multihull, stopping v non-stopping and one design v open, it does not mean there should be something in the gap.

The new Race may benefit from the contruction of several Arabian 100 multihulls by Oman Sail and others. The Race provides a way to spread costs of building such boats across a wider platform and get greater returns than mere record attempts alone would offer. There may be a significant difference between these new builds and current generation Groupama and Banque Populaire and older boats that competed in the original Race or the more recent attempt at an event like this, the Oryx Quest race.

Grant Dalton, Winner of The Race:

“When Bruno Peyron announced he was launching The Race, with my experience of round the world sailing, it immediately interested me. Although the Jules Verne Trophy was fascinating, what really attracted me here was the idea of a real race with other boats. Thanks to Bruno’s vision, I was able to experience the finest moment of my professional career. The maxi-catamaran Club Med was the first of her kind, measuring 108 feet and able to cover more than 600 miles day after day. She was a marvel and I was privileged to be on board. The Race opened the way to more extreme sailing. It pushed back the limits and allowed us to do what had previously been thought impossible. This race remains by far the highlight of my 25 years of professional sailing. The idea of relaunching The Race will move the world of sailing another step forward.”

Pascal Bidégorry, Skipper of the maxi-trimaran Banque Populaire V, holder of the North Atlantic record:

“Since Banque Populaire V was built, taking part in The Race has seemed obvious to me. I experienced the first edition as a spectator and I can still remember the enthusiasm that surrounded this race. After a few years of sailing multihulls and when you are lucky enough to sail on a maxi-multihull like Banque Populaire, I can’t imagine taking part in all these record attempts without entering an event like The Race. These are fabulous boats and battling it out around the world in real time is incredible. I admire what they do in the Volvo Ocean Race, but from a race and sailing perspective, there’s nothing like The Race.”

Mike Perham yesterday became the the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world. Record attempts are high risk sponsorship deals. On the one hand, if the attempt suceeds, then the press coverage and exposure results can be huge. On the other hand, if the attempt fails, then you need some other angle to keep people interested. There is also the chance that someone will come along and break the record several months later.

Totallymoney.com provided Mike with 75% of his funding for the campaign. In return they got title rights to the boat and the bulk of the hull. Hopefully the company will benefit from taking the risk in backing the project. In the written press, most sites have reported the name of the boat. For example:

YachtingWorld.Com

17 year-old Mike Perham became the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world this morning. His 50ft yacht Totallymoney.com crossed the finish line at 09:47:30 local time.

Thedailysail.com

17 year-old British sailor Mike Perham has become the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world. His 50ft yacht Totallymoney.com crossed the traditional Lizard/Ushant line marking the start and finish point of his 30,000 mile record-setting in bright sunshine at 09:47:30 secs (local) am this morning – two months inside the previous age record set by American teenager Zac Sutherland.

Sail-world.com

‘Mike Perham aboard his Open 50 yacht, Totallymoney.com‘

We hope that TotallyMoney.com and all Mikes other sponsors are rewarded with a lift in exposure and sales. It’s not guaranteed though. Some media, faced with declining advertising spending and editorial constraints don’t give the sponsors so much airtime. In this video, the shots are framed in such a way that the logos can not be seen in full. Whether or not it is deliberate is hard to say, but some media don’t like giving exposure to people who haven’t paid for it – that is paid for advertising space.

If you want to support the companies that supported Mike, then the full list is here: http://www.sailmike.com/extra.aspx

The British skipper has been sponsored by Aviva, the world’s fifth largest insurance group, for both sailing acheivements. The company has activated the sponsorship well to maximise return on investment.

Sarah Loughran, Head of Corporate Sponsorship at Aviva commented:

“Dee’s performance has been inspirational. She set her sights on the double world first and we’ve backed her all the way. Aviva and our employees in 27 markets across the world are very proud of her today. This race has been a testament to her determination, resolve and tenacity. We’re proud to be recognised as part of the team behind her great individual performance.”

Caffari said:

“This is just incredible! To see all these people here to watch me cross the line and make history is just awesome. The support and recognition has been unbelievable. I’m quite exhausted but I’ll be buzzing for the next few days. My goal was to set the double world first and Aviva and I have done it. It’s an amazing feeling to become the first woman to sail solo, non-stop both ways around the world. You just can’t buy an experience like this, it’s awesome!”

Irens, 62, is one of Britain’s unsung heroes of design and innovation, modestly going about his business from his home in Devon. “We didn’t even go out to tender; we went straight to Nigel,” Mark Turner, MacArthur’s business partner, said. “Ellen knew him and he’d taken her under his wing. He’s a legend really, it’s going to be hard to break these records.

“He’s a lovely guy and genuinely passionate about it. He is also a rare Englishman who is supremely respected in France – there are not many British sailing related people who are loved by the French, but Nigel is.”

But even within the world of inshore sailing Irens’s status is such that when Alinghi, the America’s Cup holders, were preparing to race BMW Oracle in a trimaran, they called on Irens and Cabaret to be part of the team.

“Nigel is at home designing a cruising catamaran or a 100ft trimaran to break records,” Turner said.

As if to confirm that, Irens reels off his list of recent commissions; from Alinghi to a modified Sodeb’O for a round-the-world attempt by Oman, the Arab nation, to a 50ft race trimaran from a giant co-operative of Brittany vegetable farmers.

Irens wants to build a 50-metre long multihull for a crewed record attempt. But in his crystal ball he sees boats with no need for huge beams or keels, because the forces are going through the boat, rather than trying to capsize it. “There were people with the first kites out there from 1974,” Irens said. “They were crazy things, but it was a sail whose centre of effort passed through the same axis as the centre of mass and the centre of lateral resistance, so it was a zero heeling device. You can’t help but think that is the future.”

It is said a good helm is worth a couple of knots of boat speed. A great helm can fill a trophy cabinet.

What does it take to be great and which helmsmen in the Volvo Ocean Race over the years qualify for the Great Helm Hall of Fame?

Ask the current crop of Volvo crew and the treasure chest fills quickly, mostly with sailors from their own teams.

But ask enough people and a clutch of names keeps on appearing, all of them masters of the new generation of boats which suggests either memory problems beyond ten years or the belief that these boats have created some truly extraordinary new talent.

“There are a small number of people who have the skill set required to be great helmsmen,” said Green Dragon navigator Ian Moore who rates himself as a poor driver.

“It is all about an ability to make the boat go quicker for longer but that actually requires a unique combination of experience, skill and flair.”

“Even if you are a great dinghy helm you could not get on one of these boats and sail at night for instance unless you are Ben Ainslie. But generally speaking, it takes around two years to learn to drive these boats.

“You need to be able to concentrate for long periods of time and most of the good ones are very clever and able to quickly process all the data that is coming at them for two hours straight. Sounds weird but they also need to have big strong driving muscles because it is physically demanding.

“Someone like Neal McDonald can drive for three hours but there are not many like him which is a shame because I reckon he, or any great helm for that matter can add around 5% to a boat’s performance.”

Experience counts

There is no doubting the value of experience when it comes to making your mark, says Magnus Olsson, who should know, having been involved in seven events

“You have to be able to anticipate what lies ahead and you can’t have too big an ego because you need to back off when you reach the limits.

“If you are experienced you have a better idea of when to start a manoeuvre depending on the waves or the sea state, though sometimes that can be instinctive. Few people have that. Good drivers need good trimmers. A good driver is useless if you have bad trimmers, so teamwork plays an important part in this.”

Olsson named Paul Cayard and McDonald as the helmsmen who stood out from the crowd for being ‘quite brilliant’. Their names were uttered countless times in our dockside straw poll.

Erle Williams has also earned his place in the hall of fame after knocking the socks of the fleet in 2005-2006 as helmsman on Pirates of the Caribbean, his third round the world race.

Others on the list include:

• Tim Powell (Dolphin & Youth 1993-94, Silk Cut 1997-98, Team Tyco 2001-02, Ericsson 2005-06)
• Craig Satterthwaite (1997-98 Swedish Match, Pirates of the Caribbean 2005-06)
• Gordon Maguire (Rothmans 1989-90, Winston 1993-94, Silk Cut 1997-98, Team News Corp 2001-02)
• Jeff Scott (Fisher and Paykel 1989-90, Yamaha 1993-94, America’s Challenge/Toshiba 1997-98, Team News Corp 2001-02, Premier Challenge 2005-06)
• Brad Jackson (New Zealand Endeavour 1993-94, Merit Cup 1997-98, Team Tyco 2001-02, ABN AMRO One 2005-06, Ericsson 2008-09)
• Stu Bannatyne (New Zealand Endeavour 1993-94, Silk Cut 1997-98, Illbruck 2001-02, Movistar 2005-2006, Ericsson 2008-2009)
• Stevie Cotton, (Yamaha 1993-94, Toshiba 1997-98, Team News Corp/SEB 2001-2)

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston commented:

“Our crews get one set of sails for 35,000 miles of ocean racing and it’s really important they’re of a high quality to see them through the extreme conditions they will be facing. We’re confident Hyde Sails will be able to provide that for our race crews and welcome them onboard as our Official Sails Supplier. We’re looking forward to working with them to develop the best possible wardrobe of sails for our fleet of ten ocean racing yachts.”

Hyde’s Sales Director Richard Franks said:

“We are delighted to be associated with a race which epitomises Hyde’s values of quality, reliability and performance. It’s an exciting partnership, which fits well with Hyde Sails’ global growth.”

Hyde Sails will power all ten of the Clipper yachts as they race round the world. Over the course of ten months and 35,000 miles of racing, the yachts and their sails will face some of the most testing sailing conditions possible, including the challenges of the Southern Ocean. As well as the benefits of the highest quality workmanship, skippers will receive personal training from Hyde’s skilled staff, and specialist support at key stopovers.

The maxi trimaran Sodeb’O is making headway beam onto the wind in a 22 to 26 knot NNW’ly air flow with waves of 4 metres. Coville has just broken his previous record set in the same zone on 6th January 2008. At that time he covered 619 miles in 25.80 knots.The wind is filling in so the record is set to continue to increase over the coming hours. Naturally, this new record has yet to be approved by the WSSRC.

www.sodebo-voile.com

Macurther said:

“Oman Sail is a project with a great heart and serious aims, and watching the Omani team progress over the past 6 months of intensive learning has been fantastic. I’m delighted to see my old boat now heading off across the oceans again on a new challenge, she was created for that! I wish the Oman Sail team fair winds and good luck on what remains an extremely difficult challenge – although I’m sure ‘Musandam’ will look after them.”

Mohsin Al Busaidi looks set to be the first ever Omani to attempt the gruelling 23,000 miles around the planet from Muscat to Muscat. If successful, the 5 person crew of ‘Musandam’ will join a select group of people who have circumnavigated the globe non-stop.

Moshsin commented:

“I am deeply honoured to have been selected to represent Oman on this first attempt to race around the world. Success is by no means certain, but we promise to give it our very best to make our country proud every step of the way. I can’t comprehend how cold the Southern Ocean will be, but the warmth of Oman will remain in our hearts and keep us strong on journey onboard Musandam.”

Oman’s Minister for Tourism, Her Excellency, Dr Rajhia bint Abdulamir bin Ali, launched the Oman Sail project. Her Excellency explained:

“Oman Sail is a long term initiative created to inspire a new generation of young Omanis to take up sailing as recreation and as competitive sport, to restore Oman’s maritime eminence through competing at international level, as well as supporting the development of events to support professional sailing in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Backed by the Sultanate, Oman Sail aims to promote the country of Oman to a wider international audience to encourage economic investment, promote the country as a prime tourist destination and, at the same time, provide working opportunities for its growing population of young adults.

Oman Sail’s dream is a big one, and it will take a decade or more to build this new capability for the Omani team to compete at top-level competitions, and is part of the plan to drive interest in young Omanis to step onboard.

In conjunction with the launch, and fresh from Act 1 of the Arabian Extreme 40 Challenge in Dubai, Oman Sail, supported by Partner Oman Air, are hosting the second 3-day ‘Act’. Each of the 4 boats competing includes 2 sailors from the Oman Sail Race Team, in their first ever competitive regatta as crew.

Shirley Robertson OBE, double Olympic Gold medallist, and skipper of “Oman Air” for this event, has been impressed by the Omani sailors:

“It is great to see a new nation sailing, my Omani crew are so motivated to learn, I am really looking forward to this next event.”

The Oman Air Challenge will be raced off Muscat between the 2nd and 4th of December. In 2009, Oman Sail will continue to race in the European iShares Cup Extreme 40 circuit, as well complete the construction of a new One Design 105′ ocean racing trimaran. Further details of this new boat will be released to the sailing media in the coming weeks.