Yachting through charity

Graham Dalton explains to madforsailing the secret of his sponsorship with megabank HSBC

Graham Dalton's new Open 60 is special in a number of ways. While these days most Open 60s are built for the Vendee Globe, which is the ultimate event for this class, Hexagon, as the boat is called, is the first in recent years to be built specifically for the Around Alone. As this singlehanded round the world race has stops then the theory goes that a boat built especially for it need not be built so robustly compared to one tailored to the Vendee.

While this is impressive and will no doubt turn a few heads when Hexagon reaches the UK in June, equally unusual about the project is that it is the first full-on Open 60 project to come from the southern hemisphere, odd when New Zealand has been so strong in other areas of yachting. And then there's the funding for the project - Graham Dalton doesn't refer to it as sponsorship - from a giant international bank based on the other side of the globe...

The money for Hexagon has come from HSBC, which boasts some 6,500 offices in 78 countries around the world, and who have their headquarters in London. So the cheque was not signed by Dalton's friendly bank manager, but by a little known sideline of the bank called the HSBC Education Trust, a global organisation that specialises in providing primary and secondary education for disadvantaged children around the world.

How on earth did this come to pass?

"We pitched in a different way," Dalton explained to madforsailing. "I see a boat or a boat race as a delivery vehicile. It could be a car race or jumping off a mountain top or driving a car to the north pole. So that's the way we treated it. We didn't push the boat race. It wasn't important to us. I always wanted to do something for children all around the world with education and do it through sport." This comes as little surprise. Dalton used to run a magazine in New Zealand called Sports Action, whose philosophy was to encourage young people to achieve their goals through sport. He has also run a youth sports award programme there.

He continues. "When we presented our proposal up in London, I made it a non-negotiable part. I said unless you go with the child element, to help young people, then we're out of here. And I was preaching to the converted. HSBC's fervour for helping young people with education around the world and the chairman's passion or obsession with helping them is perhaps even greater than mine." Sir John Bond, Group Chairman of HSBC, is heavily involved with the charitable side of his bank.

"We found we were talking the same language. I think it's fair to say they saw the race [Around Alone] as a floating classroom where they could promote a number of their programmes though their websites into schools all over the world. We also pitched to them the opportunity for people to be able to become involved to raise money internationally through all the 79 territories in which they operate - to sponsor the boat a cent a mile. When that's multiplied out - if you look at their client base - even if you get a percentage of that it is quite considerable money.

"The other thing is that the money raised stays in those countries in which it is raised. So the money raised in the UK stays in the UK and doesn't go into a great pot that goes to Botswana or wherever else it goes. It stays within the local market and the local market determines how that best be spent. So there will be trusts set up in all the countires to administer the money that they raise. I think it is pretty exciting and for me to be in the position and be given the opportunity to influence the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world positively is a huge honour."

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