Three-hulled future for Richards

Pindar announces three year sponsorship of Emma Richards and her entry in the Transat Jacques Vabre in a trimaran

After months of spurious lies and misinformation, it has finally been announced that Scottish singlehanded sailor Emma Richards has secured a three year sponsorship deal with Yorkshire-based printers Pindar and will, for the rest of this year at least, be campaigning a trimaran (and not an Open 60).

Since April Richards has been in Scandinavia taking part in the Oops! Cup. This is the Scandinavian version of the French ORMA trimaran circuit, but they only have three boats and these are all of an older generation than the current crop of three hulled fliers in France. Richards has taken part in all the events in the circuit - which have taken place in Norway, Sweden and Finland - with the exception of the recent Gotland Rund.

She has been sailing on board Toshiba (originally Tony Bullimore's Spirit of Apricot) with EF Education crew Anna Drougge and Finnish former Maiden and Royal & Sun Alliance crew Mikaela Von Koskull with whom she will be sailing two handed in the Transat Jacques Vabre from Le Havre to Brazil in November.

Skippering Toshiba for these races has been the highly popular Swedish Whitbread veteran Magnus Olssen who has been giving the girls the confidence to drive the trimaran hard. "I've never raced on a team where it's been so together and so much fun," Richards told madforsailing. "I can't remember any bad moment. I've been buzzing for three months."

Richards says that during the summer she has been learning a great deal about handling the 60ft trimarans. This was put to the test when the boats sailed in the narrow confines to the waters off downtown Stockholm.

For the rest of the season Pindar has chartered the van Peteghem/Lauriot Prevost-designed Sony, once upon a time Steve Fossett's Lakota and before that Florence Arthaud's Route du Rhum winning Pierre 1er.

Richards leaves Sweden today aboard her new boat and will go to Lorient in Brittany for a refit before crossing the Channel for Cowes Week followed by the Fastnet in which, it is rumoured Francis Joyon's Round the Island and Europe 1 New Man STAR winner Eure et Loire will be competing along with Gitana, the former Elf Aquitaine trimaran.

At that point the new Pindar will still be in her Sony colours.

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