Moloney home in fifth

Team Cowes skipper now needs funds for Vendee Globe campaign

Fifth boat home today in the Defi Atlantique was Nick Moloney on Team Waterfront. The lone Australian crossed the line at 15:50:50GMT in a time of 17 days 50 minutes and 50 seconds.

"The objective has been achieved...to finish this race and qualify for next year's non-stop round the world Vendée Globe," commented Moloney upon arriving in the finish at La Rochelle. "I am pretty exhausted and glad to be here - the last couple of night were pretty harsh - cold and wild! It has been an unbelievably fantastic race from start to finish and I have learnt masses about racing this boat solo."

In the end it came down to just a few hours - after 4,100 miles of intense and close racing, a high pressure system off Cape Finisterre effectively re-started the race as the leaders came within miles of each other...

Team Cowes managed to get within 60 miles of the leaders in the final stages of this race and finished 10h 26m 40s after race winner Mike Golding - an impressive performance against a fleet of new and highly optimised Open 60s.

"It has been a really interesting tactical race with the fleet dividing so early on - but I have been thinking a lot about Jean Pierre [Dick who dismasted on Virbac and now is attempting to complete the race under jury rig] in the last day or so... He is going to have to tough it out, big time, sailing back under jury rig at this time of year on your own - I really feel for the guy."

Nick Moloney was the first entry to be accepted for the 2004 Vendée and having now completed his qualification, he urgently needs to secure the remainder of his sponsorship budget over the next two months. He is already supported by the team of Offshore Challenges supporting partners and has part of the budget required but title sponsorship remains critical to secure the ex-Kingfisher Open 60 and optimise her to be competitive for the Vendée.

"Now the objective of qualifying for the Vendée is realised, I will be giving my full attention to securing the title sponsor we need for this campaign. We are facing a mountain - but the tougher the challenge, the greater the reward..."

Following Moloney's victory in the solo Route du Rhum in November 2003 in the Open 50 class 2, this race was his first solo on board the ex- Kingfisher Open 60. Moloney has raced this boat many times including the EDS Atlantic Challenge with Ellen MacArthur, but not solo and this race has been a great opportunity for Moloney to see how the boat can best be optimised for a solo, non-stop round the world race.

Finish times

Pos/Skippers Name/Boat Name/Finish time GMT/Race duration
1st Mike Golding / Ecover / 05:24:10 / 16d 14h 24m 10s
2nd Vincent Riou / PRB / 08:07:07 / 16d 17h 7m 07s
3rd Alex Thomson / AT Racing / 08:24:10 / 16d 17h 24m 10s
4th Sébastien Josse / VMI/ 10:45:20 / 16d 19h 45m 20s
5th Nick Moloney / TEAM COWES / 15:50:50 / 17d 50m 50s