Hatfield announces Open 60 campaign

Canadian former mountie and Around Alone competitor commissions new boat

Veteran Ocean Racer Derek Hatfield and Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges announce Merfyn Owen and Owen Clarke LLP as the designers for the new Open 60 Spirit of Canada to take on the world in 2006.

Derek Hatfield, Skipper of Spirit of Canada and Managing Director of Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges comments on Owen Clarke Designs; “the Owen Clarke Open 60 designs are recognised as being at the leading edge of these high performance Open 60 racing machines. A proven professional design track record is what is required to be competitive in the next race around the world. We have taken a great deal of time to consider all aspects of other designs and we look forward to working with Merfyn Owen to design and build the lightest, simplest and the most powerful boat for the start line of the 5-Oceans in 2006. With Owen Clarke designing the new boat, we feel we have partnered with the best design team possible to prepare for this epic challenge.”

The Open 60 is a very specialised racing machine, designed and built for one reason only, to race around the world as fast as possible against the best Open 60 teams. Owen Clarke has been involved in the development of this legendary class of racing sailboat for over a decade. Their previously designed boats include podium finishers Kingfisher (Ellen MacArthur), Pindar (Emma Richards, formerly Hexagon) and Ecover (Mike Golding).

Merfyn Owen had this to say about the partnership with Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges, “teamwork, experience and professionalism are qualities that we share with Derek and Owen Clarke Design are looking forward to designing the best possible boat for Derek to be competitive in the 5-Oceans Race in 2006”.

The Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges Team is now actively seeking partners and sponsors to join in the quest for representation at this high level of competition. The IMOCA Open 60 Class events are conducted worldwide and are effective marketing platforms reaching an audience of millions. The Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges project is unique in that it is a 4-year sponsorship program of building, training and racing that involves marketing and advertising opportunities around the world.

In 2003, Derek Hatfield was the sole Canadian and 1 of only 10 international competitors to finish the grueling 5 leg round the world race formerly known as the Around Alone. To enter the Around Alone Derek built an Open 40 specifically designed for the race.

There were tremendous accomplishments throughout the race but the major challenge occurred in the fourth leg of the race off infamous Cape Horn. Here, after fighting 60ft waves during a day long Southern Ocean gale, a vertical breaking wave pitch-poled Spirit of Canada. Derek was thrown off the deck into the frigid Southern Ocean water and then scooped up again as the boat righted itself. Devastated, Derek motored Spirit of Canada to a small port in Argentina. Over the next five weeks, with the help of friends and sponsors, Derek worked to repair the boat and get back onto the racecourse. With a new mast, new sails and electronics, Spirit of Canada was once again racing. On 31 May 2003, after racing for almost eight months, Derek arrived in Newport - the finish line - to a hero’s welcome, as hundreds of people came out to pay homage to a man who just wouldn’t quit. Courage, determination, persistence and passion paid off, Hatfield finished third place in Class II.

Owen Clarke Design's first Open 60 was when they designed Kingfisher in 1999 with Rob Humphreys Yacht Design, Alain Gautier and Giovanni Belgrano, as part of the Kingfisher Design Team. Their next boat in 2001 was Hexagon (now Pindar), which raced in the last Around Alone. The latest design is Ecover for British sailor Mike Golding which is currently being prepared for the Vendee Globe 2004. The new Spirit of Canada will be based on Ecover, the tank testing work carried out for that program resulted in a significantly different hull form and sailing characteristics from either of the two earlier 60s. Spirit of Canada will be based on a hull design that has evolved some distance from Kingfisher, but nevertheless borrows intellectual property that is made available under license that Owen Clarke Design has with Rob Humphreys. It's an acknowledged fact that without the work undertaken together on Kingfisher, the Owen Clarke Open 60 design would not have moved forward to the point where it is today.

The 5-Oceans (formerly the BOC Challenge/Around Alone) is acknowledged as the longest, hardest event for an individual in any sport. It is a single-handed around the world ocean race that spans eight months and 28,700 nautical miles of grueling competition. Running every four years, the next race starts in September 2006 and will be the sixth running of the event. It will be composed of five legs, each scored grand prix style. This multi-leg structure provides more leverage opportunities for sponsors, more peaks of excitement and drama for media and race followers plus a much more international fleet of competing skippers.

Derek Hatfield will take on the world a second time as he sets out to win the 5-Oceans and follow on from his inspiring podium performance in the 2002-2003 Around Alone Race.