Mark Turner

Ellen's Project Director discusses their plans for the future, life, the universe, etc...

If the number of teenagers setting their hearts on success in short-handed sailing seems to be few in the UK, there have been another group of sailors who have shown more interest. Over recent years a number of experienced sailors from the Volvo and America's Cup arenas, have opted to take time out to do their own thing in the French classes.

Andrew Cape for example, now one of the navigators for the Alinghi America's Cup challenger, designing his own boat and sailing it in the 1999 Mini Transat. Nick Moloney, another former America's Cup and Whitbread crewman, also took part in that race and has stuck with the 'French' classes. Most recently Moloney raced Ellen's Open 60 with Turner in the Transat Jacques Vabre and it seems likely that he would be a possible candidate for the Offshore Challenges stable. Helping people who already have huge sailing ability, albeit in a different area of the sport, Turner says interests him greatly.

Two other aspects of Offshore Challenges' approach are their stance on women's sailing and multiculturalism. Turner maintains that one of the key successes of the Kingfisher sponsorship is that is not "a Union Jack waving project". 80% of the coverage was in the UK and France but there was significant coverage elsewhere around the world. He believes that a majority of companies with a marketing budget large enough to fund a multimillion dollar racing yacht campaign are unlikely to rely solely on just their market.

Equally Turner says they have no interest in differentiating the sexes. "The women-in-sailing thing - there's a new movement in that. And all credit to them, Pindar are exploiting it. Personally I couldn't get behind it and neither could Ellen. To use the female angle is something which Ellen dislikes immensely."

While Turner admits they hit the jackpot media-wise with the Vendee Globe, he feels this was a one-off. "The Vendee finish - it is unlikely that event will ever be repeated. The combination of circumstances were pretty unique, but the return was so huge." He feels that there are many areas within sailing where sponsors are not getting such a good deal.

"There's a danger for the sport that everything will get over sold and there are clearly parts of the sport where sponsorship will never pay the returns people promise and that is bad. An unhappy sponsor is not just one unhappy sponsor, it's a negative for the whole sport. Everyone needs to keep a perspective on the return in their particular area of the sport. I would never imagine that a new sponsor and a new skipper in the Vendee will get the coverage Ellen just got. "

And what of Turner's ocean racing career? How did he enjoy the Transat Jacques Vabre? "I had great time. I was quite happy to be out there. I'm 100% not a professional sailor, I felt I let down my co-skipper a few times, because I wasn't on the pace with things, but then I haven't stepped foot in a boat for four years. But two handed sailing is the best kind of sailing. It is full on . You are on deck on your own a lot. You have a lot of the sensation of solo sailing and Kingfisher is an awesome boat for that. You have a real feel with the boat and you create a real bond quite quickly. At the same time I know that there's no way I could be hurting down waves in 40 knots of wind on my own. I could do it, but I couldn't do it in racing mode. I couldn't push hard enough."

We wait with baited breath to find out more on 3 January....