Round the world shorthanded for 40 and 50 footers

Josh Hall brings us up to date with progress - finally - with his and Brian Hancock's Portimao Global Ocean Challenge

Following the announcement of their Global Ocean Challenge last spring, Josh Hall and Brian Hancock's company Global Ocean Sailing Ventures have been deathly silent. However yesterday came the announcement that their race now has a sponsor in the form of the Algarve city of Portimao, in South Portugal. Portimao will now be the new start/finish point of their short handed round the world race for Open 50s, 40s and Class 40s.

Significantly the start date of the event has also been postponed from this September by a year, with a probably start date of 20 September, 2008.

The reason for the silence has been due to protracted negotiations with the city and port of Lisbon who were to host the start and finish as well as backing their round the world race. Unfortunately after 10 months of wrangling the uncovering of a corruption scandal within the Lisbon council has resulted in all funds being frozen and this included money potentially forthcoming for their event.



All this came to a head three weeks ago. Josh Hall (above) takes up the story: "We had a disappointing couple of days of meetings with Lisbon, but over the last six or seven months we’d been having some preliminary discussions as a back-up plan with Portimao in the south of Portugal and we immediately called down to the Vice Mayor there and the next day he was up in Lisbon for a meeting with us and we effectively did a handshake deal there and then and in the last two weeks we have nailed it all down.

"Portimao have a very dynamic city council who very much want to put their city on the map as a nautical venue. We have got further with Portmao in three weeks than we did with Lisbon in 10 months."

While the hold up with Lisbon has been largely responsible for them delaying the staart, there are several other benefits to come about because of this. Portimao are hosting an event on the Breitling MedCup at the end of August and have a busy program already throughout September and October this year. Hall says that many potential competitors are also pleased the start is being delayed.

"A lot of our competitors aren’t as ready as they would like to be and partly that is our fault, because obviously we were hoping to be able to announce our sponsorship and that the event was properly funded and was 100% on, six months ago, and we haven’t been in a position to be able to do that," admits Hall. "But we are now and we canvassed all of our potential entries before making this decision to delay and it suits everybody. I think we are going to have a much better organised and supported event in 2008 than if we’d struggled to put it together in 2007."

It also fits in better with the rest of the shorthanded sailing calendar. Holding the event this year would clash with the Transat Jacques Vabre and Hall reckons that many entries in the Portimao Global Ocean Challenge, as it is now called, will want to compete in that. "Our feeling is that a lot of the entries will be people who want to do the French classics, like the Route du Rhum and the TJV and then will perhaps want to spread their wings into a round the world race."

The Portimao Global Ocean Challenge will obviously now run at the same time as the Vendee Globe (as opposed to the Barcelona World Race this year) but this is not a problem as the Vendee Globe can only be entered in Open 60s.

Hall and Hancock's event, as we thought at the time it was announced, is opportune. The Velux 5 Oceans no longer allows 40 footers and only has one Open 50 sailing in it this time. Hall's race from the outset has been for Open 50s, Open 40s and Class 40s. The original plan was to even the fleet up by only allowing the Open 50s to be singlehanded, however Hall says he has had numerous requests from potential two handed entries in this class and will be running a doublehanded division within this too.

They have also been working on a 50ft version of the Class 40 with designers Owen Clarke. Hall says there has been much interest in this, and the delay of one year means there is more likelihood of one of these being on the start line.

At present there are also a number of Class 40s being specifically built to sail around the world. Under Class 40 rules, boats must comply with ORC Category 1, but for the Portimao Global Ocean Challenge they must be Category 0, with extra bulkheads, etc.

Hall hopes that the Open 40s and Class 40s will be able to sail in one division. "Our feeling and the feedback we’ve had so far is that most of the Class 40 skippers are happy to race Open 40s. Based on the Route du Rhum results that is quite valid. What we have to remember is that the newest Open 40s are more than six year old designs, whereas the Class 40s, while they are less hi-tech, are much more modern designs and appear to have equal, if not better, boat speed."

We would imagine it depends greatly who is behind the wheel and how tricked up an Open 40 is. Hall's plans to combine the two classes are likely to be scuppered if anyone decides to pitch up with a new Open 40.

But at present this is not set in stone and Hall stresses that their event is very competitor-driven: If the Class 40 skippers aren't happy racing with the Open 40s closer to the start time, then they won't. "I don’t want to sound wishy washy about this, but we really want to have a forum with our skippers, because they are the important people in this. If they predominantly prefer any Open 40s who come to have their own division then that’s what we’ll do. Equally we don’t want six or seven different classes - we really want to try and keep it to four."

While the event is open to singlehanders and doublehanders Hall reckons that a majority will race doubehanded. "Predominantly entry enquires are from people for whom this is going to one grand adventure within a race and they don’t necessary dream of pushing themselves to doing a solo race. We have got quite a few doublehanded entries of brothers or good friends who have sailed for many years together and in addition we have got enquires from Figaros and Mini sailors. So it’ll end up with a really eclectic group of people." Hall reckons around 70-80% of their entries will be doublehanded.

To date they have had more than 130 enquiries to enter the race, but in terms of campaigns he knows that are definitely rolling ahead Hall reckons there are more likely to be 25 boats on the start line. They will be more than happy with this turn out but if the Class 40 takes off, as looks likely to, they have to cap the maximum number of entries to 40 due to space constraints in the various ports they are stopping at.

"One of the beauties of the event is that it is putting a round the world race back into the realms of affordability for people to be able to self fund themselves or who need a sponsorship level of substantially less than it takes to do a race in an Open 60," says Hall. He estimates that a Class 40 could be entered for an all-up budget of 500,000 Euros including the price of the boat. Given that Class 40s have a good resale value then the net cost could be as little as 350,000 Euros or 175,000 per crew for a doublehanded campaign.

"Quite a few of the people that have contacted us own their own boats individually and are planning to sell them and jointly invest in a Class 40," says Hall. "So our event is well within the reach of more regular sailors. They have to have reasonable disposable income but that opportunity has been removed from other events now, with the Vendee now just for 60s and the Velux 5 Oceans really only being a 60 footers race."



Competitor enquiries to date have come from 16 countries all around the globe. American entries are likely to include Joe Harris' Open 50 Griffin Solo and Kip Stone's Artforms (above) either sailed by Stone or whoever he sells the boat to (Stone is known to be contemplating an Open 60 campaign). There are three potentials from South Africa, two of whom are serious. Meanwhile in Newport, RI, Stuart Williams and Jared Lazor are building a Class 40 to a design by Rodger Martin who designed many of the leading Open 60 back in the 1980s.

Entries will become more clearly defined when the entry list opens formally next week.

In terms of qualification a 2000 mile passage will be required and competitors will have to okay the course they intend to take with Hall. "We don’t want their qualification passages to be soft, especially because quite a few entries in the race this will be the biggest thing they have done in their lives."

For the event to succeed they will also need decent race management and already Hall and Hancock are working with veteran race officer Alan Green.Green has already written their Notice of Race which will be available next week (it has been written for some time, but they have been awaiting the announcement of their overall sponsor before releasing it).



To date Hall and Hancock (above) have been getting the show rolling on their own, but they are likely to start gathering a team around them over the next few weeks.

"We have had our fair share of critics, but mostly people have been very supportive of what we’re trying to do and see there is a demand for it," says Hall. "What people have to remember is that the whole idea got off the ground because we were approached by about a dozen skippers who wanted to do something like this."

The stopover ports are already in place - with the race visiting Cape Town, Wellington, the tiny island of Ilhabela off San Paolo, Brazil and Charleston, South Carolina where former Around Alone competitor Brad van Liew rules the roost. Scoring will be on points per leg.

While Portimao are paying cash for title sponsorship to the event, none of the other ports are stumping up cash. This has allowed Hall and Hancock more flexibility in taking the race to where they (and the competitors) want it to go, ports that are geographically correct and where their contacts there showed the right enthusiasm. Instead of cash, they have been just looking for as much 'goods in kind' as they can get, from berthing, to personnel, logistical support, etc.

"I fundamentally don’t agree with charging the ports actual cash. That is our point of view on it and are running with it," says Hall. "Our target for subsequent events is to keep the same course. In our discussions with Portimao and the other ports we have said we want them to be long term hosts of the race, so that you set up relevant leg records for subsequent races and to provide continuity with the event. It is confusing enough for us in the business to see these races changing their nature and their format with every running and for the general public it is highly confusing."

Given the growth of particularly the Class 40 we reckon Hall and Hancock are on to a winner, however we wonder how well supported the other classes will be.

Read more about the Class 40 here

To read more about the event visit: www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com