Hellomoto sets sail

Conrad Humphreys departs on qualifier for The Transat on his newly refitted and repainted steed

Motorola Ocean Racing Team Skipper, Conrad Humphreys, 31, today set off from his home port of Plymouth on his 750 nm qualifying passage for The Transat race. This trip heralds his first solo voyage onboard the newly refitted Open 60 race boat Hellomoto.

Hellomoto arrived last Friday at her new home in Plymouth Yacht Haven Marina after a record refit, managed by the Motorola Ocean Racing Team in Caen, France. After securing the boat in mid February, the challenge for the team, to refit and re-launch Hellomoto before this qualifying passage, was immense. The team had just eight weeks to execute a process that normally takes up to 12 weeks and the Motorola Ocean Racing Team surpassed expectations by delivering Hellomoto to Plymouth one week before the end of April deadline.

Conrad Humphreys, Skipper of Hellomoto and Managing Director of O6T, said: "There has been a fantastic sense of urgency in the team's attitude in preparing Hellomoto for The Transat race. We knew we were up against a tight schedule and to complete such an extensive refit in time was down to careful planning and determination on everyone's part. I am really looking forward to getting out to sea now and putting Hellomoto through her paces."

The three main objectives for the Motorola Ocean Racing Team during this refit phase were firstly, to make the necessary modifications to meet the latest class safety regulations, for example fitting a new box in the transom to house the life raft. Secondly, the team modernised the sail-handling systems, which included fitting eight new Harken winches in the cockpit area: three linked to a twisted pedestal or 'coffee grinder' positioned in the middle of the cockpit, plus mainsheet and traveler winches positioned on a new plinth built into the aft cockpit. This reduces the effort and time it takes for Conrad to trim all the sails, and allows the skipper to maintain optimum efficiency and power from the boat. Lastly, Hellomoto had to be customised to suit Conrad himself. One improvement is the addition of 350mm of coach roof to create a protected outside area or 'cuddy' in the cockpit with soft seating for the skipper to rest in and shelter from the waves washing down the boat but still keep within arms reach of the helm and grinder.

Effective communications were an integral part of the boat preparation, and the Motorola Ocean Racing Team have benefited from the use of some of Motorola's key wireless products, as Project Manager, Joff Brown, explains: "Running a programme and shore-team of this size in three different locations without the use of wireless technology would have slowed us down. The fact that we can log on remotely via wireless LAN either onboard or from our mobile container has meant downtime has been kept to a minimum."

As Conrad Humphreys is the only local skipper participating in the upcoming Transat event, Hellomoto will be berthed from now on in the Plymouth Yacht Haven Marina, which is hosting the event in the lead up to the 31 May start from Plymouth Sound.