Dropping like flies

Mike Golding is the latest skipper to drop out of The Artemis Transat

Mike Golding will not be returning to The Artemis Transat to defend his title.

Ecover 3's replacement carbon fibre keel foil will not be ready sufficiently early to allow the team to compete safely in this tough transatlantic event without compromising the campaign's goals. This is in spite of a huge effort made by JMV Industries (the foil's builder) and HDS (the keel's designer).

Mike Golding commented: "Everyone has done everything possible to make this schedule. We even initiated the design of this new keel several weeks before it was confirmed that Ecover 3's original steel keel blade was both unsafe and un-repairable. We always knew that our back was against the wall and, while our withdrawal from The Artemis Transat is disappointing it is not entirely unexpected. Everyone involved in the work on this keel has done everything possible to make it happen for us in time but we just cannot make the ends meet - we must accept it and move on."
 
The double IMOCA world champion continues to focus his attention on the Vendée Globe, which starts in November 2008. 

"Our focus remains on the Vendée Globe," confirms Golding. "It is the most demanding yacht race in the yachting calendar and Ecover 3 must be 150% competitive to even think about the main prize," commented Golding this morning.

Golding's Ecover 3 was in refit in Palma at the beginning of the year and is now at JMV industries in Cherbourg. The revised schedule will see the yacht launched for sailing trials in mid May.

Golding continued: "Naturally I am personally very sad not to be in The Artemis Transat, it's the real "grand-daddy" of all the Open races. Together with Ecover 2 we won this event in 2004 and personally, I think we could have won it this time - it's a 'Mike Golding' sort of event. But we do need to stay focused on the Vendée Globe and we will develop our schedule so that we test the refitted and reconfigured boat in all possible conditions".

With Ecover 3's withdrawal coming coming soon after those of Marc Guillemot and Roland Jourdain, the number of IMOCA Open 60s competing in The Artemis Transat is now down to 13.