Oryx Quest - a mirage?

In Qatar James Boyd talks to Tracy Edwards and the skippers hoping to take part in February's round the world race

The last year, Tracy Edwards admits, has been the worst year of her life. While attempting to create two new round the world sailing events starting and finishing in the Middle East, her progress has been dogged by prolonged legal action from Bruno Peyron, whose second running of The Race was effectively scuppered when a year ago Edwards announced her original race program and the famous £38 million sponsorship deal from Qatar.

More recently Edwards was attacked from another angle when two of her creditors, sport marketing company Sports Impact and Andrew Pindar, called in her debts: the former over funds owed to them from the launch of the Qatar project, the latter a £500,000 'short term' loan that had been extended from two weeks to two years. To compound matters the last months have seen Edwards' financial crisis messily dragged through the press in the UK and France.

Now, it appears the tides are finally turning for the dogmatic former Whitbread skipper. Edwards' financial crisis, caused by the purchase and running of her maxi-catamaran, are soon to be resolved. "The boat has been sold," Edwards confirms. "I am going to look a lot more relaxed in about two weeks time. And we’ve sold it to someone who has got a sponsor [a Qatari company]. We had an offer from a Saudi which was tempting but we have been desperate for that to be Qatar’s boat. We really have stuck to that through some fairly dodgy moments over the last few months when it’s been very tempting to sell the boat to anyone who just came along."

To date a purchase contract has been signed and shortly this will allow creditors who also include her crew as well as a South African bank, from whom she borrowed much of the money to buy the former Club Med, to be paid back.

Did she get a good price? "The figure quoted is wrong as per usual, but we’re okay."

Will it allow you to pay off your debts? "Yes."

And it will go through mid-October? "Yes, or as soon as the money comes through."

And your crew will get paid? "Yes, they are absolutely top of my list after the bank. The bank have first charge over the boat. They lent me the bulk of the money to buy the boat."



Today in Doha, Qatar, HSBC Bank Middle East were announced as the title sponsor of the Oryx Quest 2005. They are the largest international bank in Qatar and are this year celebrating their 50th year of operation in the country.

That the Oryx Quest needs a title sponsor seems puzzling. A year ago Edwards announced her £38 million sponsorship deal - surely she doesn't need any more money?

Edwards retorts that the £38 million figure was for a four year program of sailing and two round the world yacht races. "The idea was that the partnership with Qatar would bring money into the country, instead of taking it out of the country. Qatar are paying a certain amount for the events, but we were always clear on the fact that we wanted to bring in international sponsors. Qatar’s whole drive at the moment is to bring in international business and tourism and to develop the country beyond the resources it is known for. It is a very politically stable country and it is a good place to come into the Middle East and it is taking more of a centre stage in the various peace processes that are going on. So it was a way of opening the doors."

Negotiations began with HSBC in London in July last year when Edwards says that a contact inside the company told her they were planning to pull out of Formula 1.

In fact Edwards admits that announcing the £38 million figure is something she regrets bitterly and has proved a bane to her life over the last 12 months. "I wish we had explained in more detail what we were doing. And I wish people hadn’t thought we had £38 million sitting in our bank account. I can’t tell you how much trouble it would have saved us." She adds: "It is a huge lesson and salutory tale - the behaviour of people around lots of money will make you sick to your stomach. I have some small idea now of what people in the Middle East go through every day."

Edwards now reveals what she says she hasn't been able to reveal until now for legal reasons - that of this £38 million, the original plan was for £6 million to be for the Oryx Quest 2005, £12 million for her subsequent round the world event with stops in 2006, while £20 million had been set aside to get competitors to the start line of these events.

"One was our boat and there would have been a certain amount left for the other boats," Edwards says. While her maxi-catamaran Club Med/ Maiden 2/ Qatar 2006 would have been her steed for the Oryx Quest, the £20 million figure she says also included putting a new maxi-multihull on the start line for her 2006 event.

The situation was turned on its head, she maintains, when Bruno Peyron announced he was going to start legal proceedings against her. "When Bruno started his legal action we lost every penny of the £20 million. I haven’t been able to talk about that and it’s been absolutely killing me."

In terms of where she stands legally with Peyron at this time - Peyron's court case against her is outstanding and Edwards is now counter-suing Peyron for the £20 million she says slipped through her fingers because of his action against her. The next round of legal proceedings takes place in France in October.

And is there any chance that Peyron could stop the Oryx Quest from taking place? "No, there is no way HSBC or Qatar would have done this if there had been any chance we thought this could happen."

While the lawyers are licking their lips, Edwards has more positive news: that there will be two further announcements concerning the Oryx Quest in October, one of which will be a fleet sponsor that will see each competing team receive some money in exchange for some signage space on board their boats.

While it may be down to the lack of booze or the local cuisine, the course of the last year appears to have taken its toll on Edwards physically. She could now be described as 'waif-like'. "This has been the worst year of my life, but really it has been a mixed thing, because I am so happy here. I have moved here lock, stock and barrel, so I don’t have to read anything in the press which is a bit of a bonus at the moment," she says. "My daughter has started school here. She is speaking Arabic without an accent. I love it here. So I have this mixed thing where I am passionate about the events - I cannot tell you how hard we have worked - and everything here is so positive and then an article comes along and you want to throw yourself out of a window. It’s been frustrating for me because I’ve wanted to answer my critics.

"Now we have got a lot of good stuff to say. Importantly now my personal situation can stop hurting the events which has been the biggest distress to me of all. Because people refuse to separate my personal situation from the events, it has been really difficult and it has really hurt me to watch it happen and not be able to do too much about it. I have always been very up front about with everything. I have never ever lied to anyone about owing money. The people from Qatar and HSBC know the truth, they know who is owed what and they are the important people."

So as we reported some months ago, the Oryx Quest 2005 looks set to take place, still (according to the Notice of Race) with $1 million in prize money for the winner on the basis that three or more boats take the start line. The issue now is will any competitors be able to make it in time? The start is on 5 February 2005 in Doha, the boats must arrive 10 days beforehand and it takes at least a month to sail even a long-legged maxi-multihull to Qatar from Europe. The latest a boat could leave Europe is the end of December - just three months away.

At present the only 100% certain entry of the six listed in the press packs we received here today is Olivier de Kersauson and his trimaran Geronimo. This boat is already backed by Schneider Electric and Cap Gemini and the old sea dog de Kersauson tells us he is looking forward to the fresh challenge that will mark his 10th circumnavigation!

"For us it is very nice to start from here because we get the chance to sail in the northern Indian Ocean and the Southern Atlantic. So that’ll make it different. I am very interested in racing with a fleet on a round the world course. That interests me a lot," he adds gesticulating in a particularly Breton way what he plans to do to his competitors' respective derrieres.

85% of his crew will be the same as have done the last two attempts on the Jules Verne Trophy, who know the boat intimately so there is "no need to talk" on board. Is he making modifications to the boat? "Yes, but I will not tell you what."

Moving on, the most likely entry after de Kersauson is Edwards' former Qatar 2006. While Edwards claims that the sale is a done deal - contracts are signed, the purchase fee said to be already sitting in an escrow account - we await to see completion on this deal. Once this happens the boat will need a crew and aside from her old team led by Brian Thompson, Helena Darvelid and Adrienne Cahalan, there is the possibility that someone else might come in to skipper the boat. This presumably will be a decision of the new owner. "There are a lot of good people around at the moment, because it doesn't conflict with the Volvo which is good," says Edwards. The boat is in dire need of a refit but has the advantage that it is already in Doha. However the nearest place to haul the boat is said to be Dubai, some 250 miles away.

Tony Bullimore is adamant that he will make it to the start line on the 22 year old former Formule TAG, that he bought off Edwards and subsequently sailed around the world in The Race. Francis Joyon was originally considering taking this boat around the world singlehanded instead of his present trimaran and Bullimore had been threatening to follow in Joyon's footsteps on this boat until the prospect of the Oryx Quest came up.

While the vintage of this boat suggests she should really be put out to pasture, maybe in the day charter business somewhere in the Caribbean, Bullimore points out that precious little of the original boat remains - the rig is new, the bows are new, the undersides of each hull were replaced when Peter Blake and Robin Knox-Johnston had her as ENZA New Zealand, etc.

A major refit of the boat is now underway in Bristol. Rob Feloy and the boat's original designer, Nigel Irens, are supposed to be inspecting her. The refit will include stripping the boat down and checking everything. Bullimore is expecting to order a new sail wardrobe which will have to be knocked up in record time, prior to delivering the boat to Qatar in December.

"When we did The Race, it was chaos, and I don’t want to talk about that ever again in my life - everything went wrong, picking up crew two days before the start, etc," says Bullimore who recalls that due to their lack of preparation time for that non-stop round the world event they ended up having to pull into Gibraltar to replace a broken headboard car. "So the aim is to have 3,000 miles with the crew on board and shake the boat down."

At present his team, which includes James Dunning (son of well known yachting figure, Chris), are working on getting sponsors for the campaign both in the Middle East and the UK. "Tracy’s organisation is giving us a lot of support in many areas from technical support on the conditions going through Suez and at the other end, help with sponsorship and there is some seed capital which will help us to get to the starting line. So will I get to the starting line? For all my shortcomings, I’ve always made the starting line whether it has been The Race, Vendee etc."

Bullimore says that he had been trying to get a newer boat to compete in or better still an entirely new boat, but that will now have to wait until the Quest 2006. "It has been hard work. I greatly admire Tracy’s tenacity and determination to get the races together. I think that to create a platform in the Middle East in Qatar for international yacht racing, and to put it on the map is exciting. It is a new market with fresh funds coming into the sport. If you took Formula 1, if it just stayed on the original circuits, I think the sport would lack, but now they have the new circuits in Shanghai and one outside of Moscow. Yacht racing has got to evolutionise. Middle Eastern people enjoy competition - horse racing, power boating, dhow racing which is thousands of years old. Perhaps we are going back to the cradle of yacht racing..."

An unexpected figure here in Doha is Loick Peyron. Following the destruction of Fujifilm in the 2002 Route du Rhum, the 60ft trimaran ace has unsuccessfully attempted to put together a French America's Cup challenge with Bertrand Pace. His latest goal is the Oryx Quest, and Peyron hopes to be on the start line aboard the boat - Code One/ Innovation Explorer/ Orange/ Kingfisher2 - that he sailed to second place in The Race in 2001.

Being younger brother of Bruno will make for a lively family Christmas chez Peyron this year. In fact Loick says there is no fatwa on him, adding cheekily: "Bruno is my brother. If he isn’t using his boat this winter maybe I can borrow it!" Orange II is certainly undertaking a Jules Verne Trophy attempt this winter.

Back to reality and the problem for Loick Peyron - like everyone else - is one of time. He says he only kicked off this project three weeks ago and the most significant hurdles are that he needs funding and the boat he plans to race needs a rig and sails - all within the next three months. On the funding side Peyron has a number of his regular partners in France such as Lacoste and TF1 but must go to them with an awkward message: “hello, it’s not the Cup, now I’m doing this,” as he puts it.

The moulds for a new taller rig for the boat Peyron plans to sail are currently at JMV Industries in Cherbourg and he says if he left Qatar today with the money then he would be able to get a new mast and sails in time. If not, then he will have to look at other options. Ultimately he wants to follow in his big brother's footsteps and get a new G-class multihull - probably be a giant trimaran.

In the meantime Peyron's most likely option is to join forces with Cam Lewis. Lewis has Team Adventure, the third Gilles Ollier & Associates designed sistership of the trio that were built for The Race. However since 2001 the boat has a broken port bow, that remains broken as Lewis and his team proceed with a lengthy court battle with their Polish insurers, that so far has to be resolved. "We are still a ways away from some sort of settlement," the lanky American told us. "All the evidence is closed. We hope to have some result by the end of the year. The insurance company is playing a tough game and we are playing a tough game back."

Again if Lewis received funding today there is a small possibility that he could get his boat to the start line. While the boat is laid up in Rhode Island, her builder Multiplast has already made a new port bow for the boat which needs fitting - the only problem is the bow is in France, the boat in the US. "To get our boat here for this event will be very very difficult. It would be a miracle. But if I left with a briefcase of promise and cash, I could possibly do something," says Lewis.

In reality the best option would be for Peyron and Lewis to join forces as Lewis has a rig and sails but a broken platform while Peyron has an intact platform (currently being extracated from its hangar in Cowes) but no rig. "Loick is trying to get his old ride together. He has some parts, we have some parts, so maybe we can put the parts together to make one boat and get here. We still need the partners and sponsors to make this all happen," says Lewis, who adds that a 12 month postponement flag on the Oryx Quest would be most welcome.

Another serious contender if sponsorship can be raised for her is Cheyenne, Steve Fossett's non-stop round the world record breaker and at 125ft LOA, the world's largest racing catamaran. While Fossett has given up sailing to concentrate on his numerous avionics projects one wonders if the challenge of racing for a $1 million first prize could coax him out of retirement, especially if it involved taking on de Kersauson, a man who is currently claiming the Jules Verne Trophy record as his own (Fossett, despite sailing a faster time on a longer course, refused to pay the whole entry fee for the Jules Verne Trophy prior to his departure).

At present David Scully, who was effectively boat captain on board Cheyenne when Fossett was campaigning her, has the boat entered in the Oryx Quest, but he is not present at the moment here in Qatar. However Steve Fossett has recently put the boat through a major refit in Plymouth resolving the problems that the crew encountered with the boat during her round the world record voyage earlier this year. Alongside de Kersauson's Geronimo, Cheyenne is the most prepared boat for the Oryx Quest - she just needs a sponsor and a driver. This could be the boat for an 11th hour entry wanting to take part in the Oryx Quest.

Tracy Edwards who has been attempting to oil the wheels with local sponsors says that two of these teams are currently in active negotations with Middle East sponsors, one of them by all accounts very close to signing a deal.

So our verdict is that it appears that we have a yacht race in the Oryx Quest, but it will take an almighty scramble for competitors to make it to the start line by the beginning of February.