Does the Portimão Global Ocean Race have legs?

We speak to Josh Hall about how his new shorthanded round the world race is now moving at full tilt

With 19 new Open 60s expected to be on the start line of the Vendee Globe next year, the Class 40s going supernova, the Minis regularly having 150 people fighting for the limited number of available spots in the biennial Mini Transat, it is certainly boom time for singlehanded offshore racing. Thus it should come as little surprise that more races for this style of sailing are being introduced.

Previously the only way to race around the world singlehanded was in the BOC Challenge/Around Alone/Velux 5 Oceans event with stops or to go the whole hog and compete in the non-stop Vendee Globe. While the former has a heritage in allowing 40 and 50 footers to complete, Clipper Ventures, the organisers of the Velux 5 Oceans, chose to limit the competition to 50 and 60 footers for the last race, thereby cutting out the handful of Corinthian sailors wishing to race singlehanded around the world.

Recently we wrote about the SolOceans event, singlehanded around the world with a single stop in New Zealand aboard purpose-built Finot-Conq one designs (read about this here). This event is aimed at professional sailors looking for a stepping stone between Figaro or Mini classes up to the Open 60s. However Josh Hall and Brian Hancock's Portimão Global Ocean Race has a slightly different target for its competitors, effectively it is for those sailors Clipper Ventures have rejected.

Both Hall and Hancock have a background as sailors, Hancock in the Whitbread (as it was) and Hall in the singlehanded offshore world and their event not surprisingly is highly competitor-driven. The idea for their event for example was originally concocted by Hall and Joe Harris, the American owner of the Open 50 Griffin Solotwo years ago.

While to the outside world, the event seems to have been slightly stop-start, Hall and Hancock have now finalised the deal with Portimao in the south of Portugal, the host port for the start and finish of their event, who are also the event's main sponsor. As a result Hancock and Hall, who has spent the year earning a crust as part of the shore teams for Hugo Boss and Philippe Kahn's doublehanded Open 50 campaign in this year's Transpac, are now working full time on the race.

Recently the Notice of Race was published (see this here) outlining some of the key features of the event.

The Portimão Global Ocean Race will comprise five legs on a classic round the world course listed here with start dates:

Portimão-Cape Town - 12 October 2008
Cape Town-Wellington - 7 December, 2008
Wellington-Ilhabela, Brazil - 8 February, 2009
Ilhabela-Charleston- 5 April, 2009
Charleston-Portimão - 31 May, 2009

Perhaps not the smartest move from a media perspective is that start in Portimão is the day after that of the Volvo Ocean Race down the road in Alicante.

"To be honest it was nothing to do with the Volvo race," refutes Hall. "There are three big races going on at the same time then - the Vendee as well. Our positioning is so different to those races, I don’t see it as a big issue. We are going to have a much wider base of entries from all different walks of life, so the human aspect of our race is going to be a lot stronger we believe. Therefore our targeting for the media will be more mainstream and lifestyle as well as the sailing media."

While confirmed entries are thin on the ground - formally entering involves parting with cash, so skippers are likely to leave this as late as they can - Hall and Hancock have been in contact with numerous interested parties wishing to compete and are at present working to build up the entry list.

The Portimão Global Ocean Race will have two types of boat: Open 50s and Class 40s. Hall reckons that in the former they are likely to have between four and seven entries. Among them will be Joe Harris and Gryphon Solo. Several skippers are attempting to acquire the Owen-Clarke Open 50 that was formerly Artforms and most recently Pegasusor Graham Dalton's Velux 5 Oceans boat. In addition to this are two French entries, one based in the Caribbean.

"We are quite confident with the 50s that we’ll have five or six hopefully," states Hall. "It is a difficult class because those boats are quite expensive to run and there’s not many of them around. At the same time we want to make sure the race gives them a vehicle to race in, which they just don’t have any more and to try and extend the lifespan of the Open 50 class."



Among the Class 40s the entry list is interesting because Hall says it is an entirely different group of sailors than those who have competed in the last Route du Rhum or the recent Transat Jacques Vabre. One of the few exceptions is Belgian sailor Michel Kleinjans who campaigned his Open 40 Roaring 40 in the last Route du Rhum. Kleinjans is currently looking at a Class 40 to build especially for the event. Another sailor based in Chile is building one, while over the US Brian Harris, one of Hall's former shore team, is looking to campaign an Akilaria (Harris is the US importer of the popular Marc Lombard-designed Class 40). In addition a couple of the Owen-Clarke designed Express 40s, built on the Isle of Wight have been bought by skippers wanting to take part in the race.

A slight problem is that under Class 40 rules, boats must be built to ORC Cat 1, whereas the Portimão Global Ocean Race requires Cat 0. However as Hall points out the biggest modification required to bring Cat 1 boat up to stratch would be fitting an additional watertight bulkhead.

If around sixty Class 40s have been built to date, Hall reckons only six or seven of them currently comply with Cat 0 (one of these was Ian Munslow's Route du Rhum boat, Bollands Mill ). "We’ve got six people at the moment who are building new Class 40s to Cat 0 specifically to come and do our race, so that will expand. In my mind they should be Cat 0 for the transatlantic races. That is the ethos people like Ian Munslow had. If you are going to go offshore you might as well have the extra bulkhead."

As part of his work over the next weeks, Hall and Hancock are hoping to attract a few 'names' to their event. TJV class winner Giovanni Soldini is an obvious choice and has previously said that he wants to sail in another round the world event. The question is will it be this or the SolOceans race? Fujifilm skipper Alex Bennett is another potential, particularly after his disappointing TJV.

"It would be good to get some well known names into the race just to add to the mix, but we are not reliant on it," says Hall. "I think our race will be quite multifaceted - it can act as a springboard for people to move onto the Open 60 circuit or elsewhere, but equally it is something for people like Giovanni or myself, as 'older solo skippers' we get very tired with the sheer amount of money and people needed for Open 60 projects. So it is refreshing to be able to do a small 40ft campaign that doesn’t need that. I wouldn’t be surprised if subsequent races don’t attract veterans to come back and do something involving less money and pressure and just enjoy a race around the world." Already we have seen the likes of Bertrand de Broc, Florence Arthaud and Luc Poupon competing in the Class 40.

Another facet of the Portimão Global Ocean Race is that both classes can be raced single or doublehanded. Interestingly doublehanded entries can choose who sails from a pool of four. Again, allowing this was competitor driven. "We put it out there because the whole ethos of the event is to give as many people who want to do this type of race the opportunity to do it," says Hall. He admits that he and Brian Hancock thought that one class or the other would favour singlehanded over doublehanded, but this has not turned out how they foresaw. "We expected the 50 footers to be two handed and the 40 footers to be solo, but what has naturally happened is that in the 40 footers, they are all so far doublehanded and in the Open 50 class they are all so far singlehanded," says Hall.

As to the reason they allowed singlehanded and doublehanded, Hall says: "A lot of the reason is that for many of our entries it will be the biggest thing they have ever done in their lives and while they are all very competent sailors, it is too much of a leap to go solo. And, as we can see from the TJV and the Barcelona race, it is more fun and a lot safer and you can push the boats harder when you are two handed. Also with many of our 40ft projects that are planning to come, it allows a division of funding - two people between them can afford a Class 40 and to campaign it around the world much easier than one and it also doubles up sponsorship seeking, etc. Whereas the 50s are generally owned by people who can afford the budget or with some extra sponsorship."

Aside from wooing entries, Hall and Hancock are also helping to find sponsorship for some entries and are offering practical help and are yacht broking.

Another interesting idea Hall and Hancock are looking to introduce is to have their own pool of shore support travelling around from port to port. "We are planning to have a team of preparateurs plus a rigger, a sailmaker, a couple of boatbuilders and an electronics guy that will come around with the race and to a certain point we’ll cover the cost of that and there on after the projects will pay them directly," says Hall. "As I found on all my years preparing boats in all sorts of places around the world, if you have someone on site that is an expert in this sort of thing it is so much easier than going to try and find a local boatbuilder who you don’t necessarily trust or an electronics guy who might not speak the same language. It makes competitors’ lives easier and better, but it also helps us to keep boats in the race, because my target is that everyone who starts finishes." Fighting talk...

Most recently Hall and Hancock have secured a TV/media package deal with British-based company Goldhawk Media, who have a background in getting programs on to the BBC and ITV in the UK, as well as Discovery Channel and History Channel internationally, among many others. "That will really help our competitors to secure sponsorship because we are very much going down the line of getting guaranteed media coverage and TV remains a powerful medium for that. Over the next two months Goldhawk Media will be trying to pre-sell documentary series and news updates to TV stations worldwide. We have entry interest from over a dozen countries and they will be markets they’ll try and garner television attention for the race from and that in turn should help those entries from those countries to get local and national sponsorship."

Obviously one fear is that with the SolOceans race, also seeing itself talking place biennially (the same period Hall and Hancock want for their events in the future) will there be enough entries to go around? Like Hall, we think yes.

"Most of our skippers who have decided over the last year or 18 months to build a boat specifically to come and do our race," expands Hall. "If we had 15 Class 40s in our race we would be very happy. As a percentage of the Class 40s out there - there are probably close to 100 now including the ones ordered and being built. So we are after 15% of that and the rest will do the French classics. Some of them will never want to do more than that, but others, when they have done the Route de Rhum and TJV, might want to spread their wings and go around the world. So that is our niche market."

Perhaps the clincher for Hall and Hancock's event is the price tag. With their event it would be possible to compete on a budget of 500,000 Euros including the purchase price of the boat (although most will no doubt end up spending more...) "Otherwise it is a 5 million Euros for an Open 60 campaign," says Hall.