Route du Vendee Globe

James Boyd caught up with Nick Moloney to discuss his Open 50 campaign for the Route du Rhum

Securing sponsorship in yacht racing is - to put it mildly - an uphill struggle. After the supreme success they have enjoyed with Ellen MacArthur, Offshore Challenges are now trying to perform a similar feat with the other race horse in their stable - Nick Moloney.

In theory this should be easy. Moloney has all the credentials: He is media friendly as anyone who has seen him making sense of the America's Cup on Peter Snow's BBC programme will atest. He has a CV that includes an America's Cup with OneAustralia, a Whitbread on board Dennis Conner's Toshiba and earlier this year he completed another faster loop of the globe with Bruno Peyron during the Jules Verne Trophy breaking non-stop passage on board the maxi-catamaran Orange.

Moloney often talks about wanting to achieve three ambitions in his yachting career. With the Whitbread and the Jules Verne now ticked off his list, the third should happen, if the right pieces of the jigsaw fit in place, in 2004/5 when Moloney takes part in the next Vendee Globe. The Route du Rhum singlehanded transatlantic race which starts for him on Saturday week, is like a statement of intent.

"The whole concept to do the Rhum came from Mark [Turner]," explains Moloney as we sit on board his boat, tied up outside the GBR Challenge base in Cowes. "Mark's philosophy is that in the quest to do the Vendee you really need representation in this race. You need to be there, you need to be seen - it's part of the whole stepping stone.

"It's really the only solo race that you get to do before the Vendee other than the OSTAR, but the OSTAR's too late to get a sponsor. So you're using the Rhum to find a sponsor, and test your means of communication and your media channels."

Offshore Challenge's boss, Mark Turner is keen to repeat the formula with Moloney that worked so well with Ellen. In the 1997 Route du Rhum, Ellen was entered aboard an Open 50 and was logoed up to the hilt with the name of a company new to yachting - Kingfisher - who had been lured on board as a trial sponsor.

And so it is that this time round Offshore Challenges have acquired another Open 50 - JP Mouligne's Around Alone class winner Cray Valley - for Moloney to prove he can perform not only singlehanded on the race course but also on the media side during next week's Route du Rhum.

The acquisition of the former Cray Valley came about when Moloney was away on the Jules Verne. "While I was at sea, Mark said we need to do the Rhum and we need to find a boat and started looking at the options that were around," says Moloney. "We originally looked at trying to get a 60".

They wanted to charter a boat, but the owners of these boats seemed to only want to sell, and while Turner was keen on a two boat Open 60 campaign with Ellen (who is racing Kingfisher in the Route du Rhum), Moloney wasn't. "I think there is no merit in Ellen and I facing off against each other directly. The two of us don't want to become competitors. The whole reason for me coming into the program was to work with Ellen in a team role. I don't think any program in its infancy is ready to put two Open 60 projects, as good as they possibly can be, against each another in a Rhum. Besides, given the boat and her talent there is every chance she'd kick my arse!"

He adds that he is happy not to have to endure the limelight and pressure imposed upon Open 60 skippers.

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