Underway

Offshore Challenges Sailing Team to build new Farr design ready for Barcelona World Race

Following the announcement of their intent to campaign two Open 60s with a team headed by Ellen MacArthur, so the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team have begun construction of the first of their new boats. The new Open 60 is being built by their own team at the Medina yard (the former GBR Challenge facility) in Cowes to a Farr design.

Despite having yet to secure title sponsorship, OC Group head Mark Turner says they are going ahead with the build regardless. "We have sufficient funding in place from our existing family of partners and self financing effectively to be able to field and launch in time to be serious about doing the Barcelona World Race."

And what of possible sponsorship? With Ellen involved and the outrageously successful Kingfisher sponsorship at an end, surely the corporate world will be beating a path to her door? Turner outlines the situation: "With.a project headed up by Ellen - you don’t have any problem opening doors but at the end of the day the equation is the same: you have to be talking to a brand that have committed £x to something outside, like football, that don’t know what they want to do and haven’t yet spent it. That means you have about five days out of 300 days, period, that you have to make contact with that person. Billions are spent on sponsorship, it increases every year, it is absolutely a solid part of any marketing mix, but actually the game is hard because people usually sign for two to four year deals for whatever they are doing and they only do that every two to four years. So you have to be there at the right time with the right product."

As to specifics Turner says they are well advanced with a few possible title sponsors, but until such time as one signs on the dotted line you just never know.

At present the build team is laying out the frames for the moulds for the new Farr Open 60. So why go with Farr rather than Owen Clarke or Juan Kouyoumdjian? Mike Sanderson is known to be keen that some other skippers follow him down this path in order to share development costs... "We were very keen to look at some different avenues, with Merf [Owen] or Juan. It is quite a difficult decision, but one we had to make quite quickly. The decision we made was a practical one. We don’t have that much time to be reflecting or coming up with radical ideas. If we had we would have made a more radical choice. We have gone with a Farr design because there is a whole set of drawing right here, now. We would like to do a good boat early than a good boat +0.5% that we might screw up on timing."



Farr have therefore scored their fifth new generation Open 60 commission that so far includes the already launched Delta Dore and PRB, Jean-Pierre Dick's new Virbac-Paprec and Michel Desjoyeaux' new boat which may or may not Foncia-backed.

Turner adds that they are still very serious about getting a two boat campaign but whether the second boat happens in time for the Barcelona World Race or for the Vendee Globe in 2008 at this stage remains to be seen. If they get the necessary funding for this and have more time then they won't necessarily return to Farr. "We want to create a benchmark boat that will help us go forward. PRB is probably the widest and I don’t think we’ll be wider. The whole principle for the boat will be down the middle."

So if the new OC Group is to be a new stock Farr design then it is likely to be like Delta Dore in terms of hull shape,. Where any significant varation will be is in the rig. As Turner puts it " Delta Dore’s rig is the opposite end of the spectrum to PRB’s. We haven't decided yet." Given that they are short of budget at present, we would predict the new boat will have a lightweight fixed mast.

Wearing his IMOCA class association hat, Turner says it is amazing that with a class so mature you can still be making such fundamental decisions. "At the end of the day all these boats are incredibly similar when it comes to performance even with radically different choices. Even before a boat with fixed keel, ballast and a conventional mast stood up well with a boat with a swing keel and wingmast. So that is the interesting thing. But there is no question the boats are moving forwards at the moment."

Ellen MacArthur tells us that the first race they intend to race the new boat in will be the Calais Round Britain Race next year. This event starts on 3 June. It is then likely to compete in the other events in the IMOCA calendar such as August's Rolex Fastnet Race, prior to the boat's main event next year - the Barcelona World Race, starting a year from today.

The crew for the new boat at present is not known and as to Ellen's participation, OC Group are keeping their powder dry about exactly what sailing she will be doing over the forthcoming seasons. Most categoric is that Ellen definitely won't be doing the 2008-9 Vendee Globe. Considering the Barcelona World Race is such a key event in her and Mark Turner's event portfolio it seems most likely she will compete in this and may be on board for some of the crewed events.

"I don’t know whether she’ll do the Barcelona World Race or not," says Turner. "To be honest it’ll be decided in the new year. It is a function of who the title sponsor is. It is an IMOCA 60 campaign and there are a lot of communications projects in it, sustainable development, environment and that is all part of a bigger project. But the one with the biggest time-line on it is building the boat, so we have pushed the button on that side of it."

Having divested themselves of the Kingfisher 2 maxi-cat to the Gitana team and having chartered Ellen's original Kingfisher Open 60 to Marc Guillemot for the Route du Rhum, in which the French former trimaran skipper it has to be said, hasn't exactly shone, the OC Group flotilla is very much smaller than it was at the beginning of the year.

'Surely the Kingfisher Open 60 should be in the hands of a museum for posterity's sake?" we put it to Turner "If you can find a museum willing to pay for it. But she hasn’t finished her life yet!" he retorts. "She is still one of the best boats right now for someone who is stepping up into the 60s if they have not come from the Figaro school. As Brian Thompson showed in the last Transat Jacques Vabre, you can hang on to the new boats for a long long time as well. It is clearly not a boat that can win one of these races any more but it is great boat. We hope to sell or charter her for the Barcelona World Race - there are quite a few projects quite close to that."

Turner also would very much like to shift on Ellen's B&Q Castorama 75ft trimaran (low mileage, one lady owner, etc). With Francis Joyon and Thomas Coville building newer, longer boats for solo record breaking there would be a good opportunity for someone to set some more records in this boat before the new builds are launched.

Back to the Open 60 and another option Turner is keeping in the back of his mind is of selling the boat after the Barcelona World Race to a late Vendee Globe entry. "There is a good chance of selling it for what it cost you to build it, plus something. The market is strong particularly pre-Vendee when it will be too late for people to build and qualify in which case having a boat could be quite a useful asset. We haven’t got the money to go and build a fleet of 60s, but that was part of the decision of pushing ahead."

Meanwhile OC Group are continuing to entice participants to the two handed Barcelona World Race. At present four teams have been officially announced, in addition Delta Dore is believed to be competing and the new OC 60 will definitely be on the start line. At least four more Open 60s will be announced by the beginning of new year we understand. It is likely ten to 15 boats will be on the start line next November.

On Saturday to mark the 'one year to go til the start' of the Barcelona World Race moment , Ellen MacArthur, the Spanish Minister for Sport Pere Alcober and a group of the crews competing or hoping to compete, attended an official function in Barcelona where the countdown clock was started.. The countdown ceremony took place at the foot of the Torre Jaume I, next to Barcelona's World Trade Centre. The famous tower, visible from nearly aspect of Barcelona, now carries a new banner publicising the start of the Barcelona World Race on 11.11.07 at 14h00 local time (1300 GMT).