New British sponsor for sailing

Skipper Brian Thompson and Chief Executive Mark Tyndell discuss Artemis' new Open 60 campaign

Probably the best piece of news we have heard in the world of British offshore racing this year is the support by leading UK investment company Artemis of an Open 60 programme led by top British offshore racer Brian Thompson.

At a press extravaganza on the Thames on Friday the Open 60 Artemis was revealed - originally Graham Dalton's Hexagon and more recently Emma Richards and Mike Sanderson's Pindar Alphagraphics - resplendent in her new navy blue and white livery. Following her unfortunate prang with a rock at the start of the Newport-Bermuda race, so the boat has been shipped from the US (her keel airfreighted on ahead) and arriving only on Wednesday was hurriedly put together by her shore team prior to Friday's event.

Artemis Investment Management is a great sponsor to be coming into yachting. Established in 1997 it is 71% owned by ABN AMRO (familiar?) and 29% by Artemis. In September 2002 the company acquired ABN AMRO Fund Managers and its unit trust vehicle, launching four of its own unit trusts in March 2005. It currently manages funds worth £10 billion. Artemis follows a number of investment houses that have been involved in our sport in recent years including Gartmore, Skandia, Aberdeen Asset Management, ABN AMRO, JPMorgan and UBS - sailing obviously provides access to 'high net worth' individuals as well as offering unique opportunities for clients to actually participate.

Various individuals high up within the management of Artemis sail, but Brian Thompson says this may actually have worked against them getting involved with our sport, as the company were keen to base their decision to support sailing on sound commercial reasons rather than ones of personal preference. "They really had to explore all the other options to come to that conclusion. Their gut conclusion was that it was the right thing but they had to compare it to cricket, rugby, golf, etc to justify it to themselves that they weren’t backing a sport they just happened to like."

In fact we understand that negotiations with Artemis have been taking place over a number of years - they were originally one of the companies in the running to support Neal and Lisa McDonald's Volvo Ocean Race campaign.

"The idea of putting a postage stamp on the side of a helmet travelling at 170mph around the bends at Monza didn’t really appeal," explained Artemis' eloquent Chief Executive Mark Tyndall on Friday of why his company chose sailing. "Then sailing started to get more interesting and we started to look at what that meant: In the world of sailing you have top end events like the America’s Cup and that is an extremely expensive Grand Prix type event and sadly the UK was unable to get a team together to compete in that. You’ve had the Volvo Ocean Race recently which has been a fantastic event but really it was the province of the global players and again the UK was unable to get a team together for that. But then you look at the Open 60 world and suddenly it starts to take on a different complexion. The UK punches above its weight in terms of world class sailors and the Open 60 is a great class in which people can showcase those skills and make the statements they are trying to make about their chosen passions in life."

Skipper Brian Thompson is primarily known as a multihull sailor having been a long term helm for Steve Fossett since the days of Lakota in the early 1990s and was on board for PlayStation's record breaking round the world and transatlantic voyages. Thompson also skippered the Doha catamaran to victory in Tracy Edwards' Oryx Quest. However in recent years Thompson has started to go one hull ['sold out' many might say...!], racing with Mike Golding on Ecover, sailing the Transat Jacques Vabre with Will Oxley on Skandia and even raced the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on board ABN AMRO One when watch captain Mark Christensen was injured.

For years Thompson had been looking for money to campaign a 60ft trimaran. "When we did the Transat Jacques Vabre on Skandia we realised that only three of the trimarans were going to make it and we were sailing in the same waters and we were having quite a relaxed time, it wasn’t that extreme for us, while the trimarans all broke. So we thought if you have a sponsor and you want to do a good job for them you are not going to if you don’t finish the race. The trimarans are so much more fragile. And I enjoyed the time with Skandia, getting the boat up to speed for three months and working with the team there. And it just seems like the Open 60 is the right class and it is obviously expanding with 10 new boats being built and not too many 60ft trimarans being built. The 60ft trimarans are still a wonderful class and I’m sure I will get back to multihull classes."



The connection between Artemis and Blue Planet, the company managing the campaign that includes illustrious figures such as Project Manager Howard Gibbons and Technical Director/designer Simon Rogers was made by sports marketing expert Rob Quick of Chalfont St Giles-based company Double Quick Marketing.

"As soon as we started talking to them we started to get really excited," continues Tyndell of how they got into yachting. "In any business you have built from scratch you have nourished and nurtured certain attributes that people have, attributes that mean that they are going to be part of a successful team. One of the first principles at Artemis we signed on to is what we call the Noah Principle ie there is not point in forecasting rain if you don’t build an ark. When you are trying to build a business there is no point in having people who are just going to sit back and critise and not do anything. You need people who are going to do things, people who are prepared to take risks, it involves having convictions about what you are going to achieve and having a total and singular commitment to achieving those targets that you have set yourself. And in many respects the world of long distance singlehanded sailing in Open 60s echoes an awful lot of that. It is a huge commitment people take in their lives to take this on, both on and off the boat, putting these programs together, you get knock downs as often as you get the great moments and when you meet the people who have dedicated their lives to doing it, it is uplifting. And we felt we’d like to help some of this happen and to go forward."

The program with Artemis is set to run at present until October 2007 and will include a mix of races, records and corporate events. Records will include around the Isle of Wight, Fastnet course and Round Britain and Ireland. In terms of races they will be competing in the RORC's Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race in August with the big one being the Route du Rhum in October. Corporate jollies will include Skandia Cowes Week and a special event to be held on the Forth, close to Artemis' Edinburgh HQ. This event won't be an IMOCA race, however several Open 60s are being invited up to compete and some enthusiasm for this has also been shown by the Brittany contingent.

Post Route du Rhum the Open 60 will winter in the Caribbean before competing in the circuit of Caribbean regattas including St Croix, St Maarten, St Thomas, BVI Spring Regatta and Antigua Race Week before heading north for attempts on the New York-Miami record and up to Charleston, a 24 hour record run into the Atlantic and then the west to east Atlantic passage itself. Summer of 2007 will include any events in the IMOCA calendar such as the Calais 1000 and Rolex Fastnet races and more corporate functions.

"Then we’ll just see how it goes," says Thompson. "It is Artemis' first sponsorship of anything, a tester, but everyone is thinking it’ll probably carry on. But we have to get through the first year and make sure everyone is happy. We are not definitely doing Barcelona or the Vendee, but everyone knows it is there if we want to do it..."

Unlike most of the skippers in charge of Open 60s Thompson is excited about the prospect of racing the Vendee Globe, but does not view it as his life's ambition. He prefers to describe himself with the French term 'polyvalent' ie an all-rounder. Thompson says that if they do go ahead and race the Barcelona World Race then it will be in their existing boat, but if the Vendee becomes a real possibility then they will have to look at getting a new boat.

Thompson has put together an impressive team around him. Aside from Gibbons and Rogers, Eleanor Mordaunt manages the logistics fresh from her time at movistar on the Volvo Ocean Race, while the shore team includes stalwart Open 60 preparateurs such as boat captain Johnny Malbon, Nick Black (in charge of engineering and systems), Mark Thomas (rigging) and Ian McCabe.

So far the boat itself has changed little since Mike Sanderson 'breathed' on it prior to the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2003. This includes a mast and boom arrangement very similar to ABN AMRO One, with a rope purchase vang arrangement and longer daggerboards and an enlarged Solent that now goes up to the hounds instead of the top spreader. Thompson says there isn't that much, certainly nothing significant, he'd like to change to the boat.

But will it be competitive against the new generation boats? "I will be very interested to see the new boats," says Thompson. "I think they are going to be more powerful, another leap in power, but if they can sail a 60ft tri then I see no reason why they can't sail them. Reaching I think they will be quicker than this but upwind and downwind I think we’ll be the same speed. So an upwind or downwind Route du Rhum would be good! This boat is also well suited to fully crewed racing because it has a big cockpit and it is light, but it is also heavy because it has got a lot of water ballast."

We hope that in Artemis, Thompson has found his Hugo Boss/Ecover.