Route du Vendee Globe pt2

In part two of our interview with Nick Moloney he describes what it is like to sail his boat

Continued from part one of this interview

The boat Moloney is sailing has the legs to win, but only just alongside Saving. After chartering the boat it became evident to Offshore Challenges that the work necessary to make it race ready would make it more cost effective to buy - therefore they are now the proud owners of an impressive fleet including one Open 60, an Open 50 and a newly acquired 110ft catamaran (the former Orange).

Moloney's relationship with this boat, renamed Offshore Challenges 1, began in July when he picked her up from Marco Lefevre's boatyard in Caen, northern France and delivered it to Cowes for Cowes Week. After Cowes, he set off immediately to do his 1,000 mile qualifier for the Route du Rhum. Since then the time has been spent working up the boat and getting the miles in.

"I've done a couple of overnight sails and a quite few round the island sails," he says of his training process. "There is not a lot to be gained by being out there for two or three days just reaching around, but round the island you've got varied wind strengths, heaps of current, heaps of sail changes - so for me it is a great course. You come back trashed. You're close to land, there's always a corner coming up and some of them are sharp and some of them are smooth." Unusually it seems he hasn't spent much time training with Ellen.

As to the boat itself Moloney says that the work has been mainly cosmetic. "The bottom's been faired up nicely. We've replaced the rigging and taken a lot of weight out with aramid fibre in the forestay and backstays [otherwise she has rod rigging]. And we've fitted new furlers."

Continued on page 2...

Offshore Challenges 1