Team Alpari FX and the magician Troy

Keith Swinton to get backing for the Alpari World Match Racing Tour in 2014

Leading global FX broker and major sport sponsor, Alpari, has today released a film entitled The Sailing Lesson, featuring Channel 4’s magician of the moment Troy Von Scheibner. In the film Troy meets Alpari’s unsuspecting professional sailing crew Team Alpari FX for a sailing lesson with a difference. After demonstrating their skills on the water, the mystic genius renders the sailors speechless by seemingly pushing the boundaries of reality…

This unique collaboration with Troy marked the launch of the new 2014 Team Alpari FX line-up: Australian skipper Keith Swinton, bowman Ricky McGarvie (Aus), trimmer Ted Hackney (Aus), tactician Ben Lamb (Aus) and pitman Tudur Owen (GB), who previously raced under the name Black Swan Racing. The newly-appointed Team Alpari FX will be competing in the 2014 season of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT) – also sponsored by their title partner Alpari.

Speaking after the stunt skipper Keith Swinton remarked: “Flying straight in from Australia with no idea of what today’s launch event would entail had us all guessing. Meeting Troy was fantastic and we still can’t get our heads around how the boom went straight through him. If only we could master it, it would certainly save us some on-board injuries! Today has been a great way to start our sponsorship with Alpari; hopefully we can pull some of our own tricks out of the bag this season!”

Magician Troy said: “I've always wanted to perform magic with a yacht – so when they called me about this, I was 100% there. The guys in Team Alpari FX were great to spend time with and I look forward to seeing them turn their own magic tricks on water this season."

Elizabeth Bacon, Sponsorship and Events Manager at Alpari UK added: “Providing the extraordinary is an ethos we live by at Alpari, from the service we offer our clients to the sports we partner with. Having had strong ties to sailing since 2012, we’re proud to support professional sailors who show extraordinary passion and talent. Today was a great way to welcome the new crew and show them a little magic of our own.”

The stunt was filmed at the Queen Mary Sailing Club, Middlesex (UK) using J/80s provided by the Royal Thames Yacht Club.