New Pindar duo

Liz Wardley and Jeanne Gregoire join forces for Transat Jacques Vabre

Pindar, the international print and electronic media company, today announced its sponsorship of Liz Wardley and Jeanne Grégoire’s entry into the 2005 Transat Jacques Vabre. The two girls will sail on Pindar AlphaGraphics, the IMOCA Open 60 yacht which is no stranger to the race having competed (briefly) in 2003 with Emma Richards and Mike Sanderson.

The sponsorship deal forms part of Pindar’s ongoing support for sailing and, in particular, female sailors who continue to make impressive gains in this male-dominated sporting arena. In 2002-3, Pindar sponsored Emma Richards in the Around Alone race when she became the youngest person and first British woman to complete the solo round the world yacht race. Emma will not be competing in this race as she is taking time out to be with her partner, Mike Sanderson who is skippering ABN AMRO 1 in the Volvo Ocean Race. Most recently, Pindar sponsored Hilary Lister who became the first quadriplegic to sail the channel solo using an innovative technical set-up that allowed her to control the boat solely by inhaling and exhaling through tubes.

Both Liz, from Papua New Guinea and Jeanne from France, have clocked up some extensive experience between them with Liz having sailed in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001 on the bow with the all female crew Amer Sports Too. In 2004 she started her first Solitaire du Figaro season and finished 25th overall in 2005 on Sojasun. Jeanne has raced longer in the Figaro class and her achievements speak for themselves finishing 2nd rookie in 2002, 33rd in 2003, 15th in 2004 and 12th in 2005 in the annual Solitaire du Figaro. The partnership between Pindar and Wardley/Gregoire has echoes of Pindar’s first sponsorship of Emma Richards in 1999 when they gave her the opportunity to break into the tough world of Ocean Racing. As an international business, Pindar also believe that it is important to extend their sports sponsorship to include sailors from around the world.

For the TJV, Pindar has also joined forces with the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team who are providing technical and race management support utilising their vast experience of managing Open 60s campaigns. The Offshore Challenges Team will also be setting up the onboard communications for Pindar and and providing a race communications service for the race.

“We are both extremely grateful to Pindar for its support in this campaign”, said Liz Wardley. “Pindar has gained a great reputation as a supporter of sailing at all levels and we are delighted to be working with them. We also have a great boat to compete in with a good track record and hope we can be amongst the first boats to come into Salvador”.

Andrew Pindar, Chairman of G.A. Pindar and Son commented: “Pindar has a great pedigree with the TJV and we are extremely pleased to make this announcement today. Liz and Jeanne are two young sailors who have both made a great start in the sport and show great potential to succeed at a senior level. In Pindar they have a great boat and we wish them well in this challenging race.”

The race starts from Le Havre, France with the monohull division setting off on Saturday, 5 November and the multihulls the following day. Currently a total of 35 boats have entered the race - 14 in the Open 60 monohull class - which will see the crews race across the Atlantic to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil.