Sponsor wanted for Steve White

Vendee Globe hero discusses his new plan to attempt the singlehanded westabout round the world record

As jaded old yachting hacks it is not often we get surprised, but one of the delights of the last Vendee Globe was the performance of British skipper Steve White. A classic ‘against all the odds’ tale, White, 36, father of four, had been hoping to do the Vendee Globe for ten years and, in a finest example of what can be achieved through sheer determination, remortgaged his house four times and took out a monster bank loan to buy his Open 60 (originally Josh Hall’s 2000 generation Gartmore), his resolve finally paying off when a secret backer stepped in to get him the last few yards to the Vendee Globe start line.

Prior to the start of the Vendee Globe most of us had dismissed White as an also-ran, but had to reappraise rapidly when, as the majority of the fleet broke down around him, Toe In the Water soldiered on, White’s practical aptitude standing him in good stead.

Ultimately in a boat that he was still working on on the day of his Vendee Globe departure, that he had had no training time in and that was one of the oldest and probably the slowest in the fleet, that by all rights should have not made it round, White successfully arrived back in Les Sables d’Olonne after 109 days, eighth of 11 finishers out of a starting field of 30.(Read more about it here)

Upon his arrival back in Les Sables, White stayed the minimum among of time required by the race organisers, then took the boat back to Weymouth and within two days was back in Dorset welding up cars to help alleviate “the mess”.

18 months on and White has announced his next challenge – to attempt the singlehanded non-stop round the world record westabout against the prevailing winds, following a long standing British tradition started in 1971 by Chay Blyth and subsequently continued by Mike Golding and Dee Caffari. The present record is held by French veteran solo round the world sailor Jean Luc van den Heede, on the purpose-built 25.8m long Adrien, who in 2004 set a time of 122 days 14 hours and 3 minutes.

“I have been thinking about it for quite a few years,” White told thedailysail. “I read Mike’s book a few years ago and that was fairly inspirational. But I thought it was something I could do and that I would be a good way to use the particularly skills I have – keeping the boat together as it would be fairly hard on the boat. Maybe it won’t be so bad going upwind in the Southern Ocean.”

White had been looking to compete in the Barcelona World Race, but as a Brit hadn’t been able to raise the money in Spain. While philosophically he might be more in tune with the Velux 5 Oceans, this didn’t appeal to him he says because it is in Eco 60s (in fact his Vendee Globe boat qualifies) and White says he wants to move on with a newer boat. “All of a sudden – here is the record we have been thinking about for ages,” says White.

To take on this brutal record requires specialist equipment. Van den Heede’s boat was specially built. The Challenge 67s used by Golding and Caffari are no longer competitive enough. So White’s weapon of choice is the Rob Humphreys-designed Team Russia Volvo Open 70 ‘keenly’ for sale by Berthon in nearby Lymington.

This beast is near perfect for the job. With its structure overweight by, White reckons, 0.5 tonnes and with a substantially under weight bulb as a result, the boat was not competitive with the more refined machines in the last Volvo Ocean Race. However these weaknesses are of no consequence for what White intends. Compared to an Open 60 the boat has a more all round performance and is almost certainly more robust upwind.

White rattles off the required job list: “The steering is on the dodgy side. We need to do something with the string steering at the back of the boat - it is not that tidy and doesn’t look reliable.” Two autopilot systems must be installed along with the necessary structure for the rams. Despite Team Russia’s unique powerboat-style reaching strakes, and the VO70 scantling requirements, the forward panels also need beefing up. “Both rigs are massively overbuilt – I’ve spoken to Halls at length about it, so it is a case of adding furling sails. Bruno Dubois from North is already working on a sail plan.” The sail plan will be reduced with some of the roach lopped off the main, and probably a fourth reef added, while the headsails will be mounted on roller furlers. “It’s all Spectra with Cuben gennikers, so hopefully fairly indestructible.”

“Then it is silly things like there are physically big open spaces in the boat which are bad news for someone on their own and there is not a lot to hold on to on deck, so we’ll raise all the stanchions and guardwires, loads of handholds.”

There are other physical issues – White isn’t tall and he says they will have to build a platform down below in the forepeak which he can stand on in order to open the foredeck hatch. He is also contemplating adding an extra tonne of water ballast to put in the back of the boat. “I can stack quite well downstairs but the sails are a bit on the big side to stack on deck. So another tonne at the back of the boat should help out.”

White reckons the work would take around six weeks to complete and believes that the refit would actually make the boat more sellable after his attempt as then it won’t require a dozen beefcakes to sail it.

“It was an obvious choice of boat to do it in. It was sitting there locally. And the attempt is right in terms of the time frame between this Vendee and the last. It seemed like the right time to go for it.”

Also working with White on the campaign is Andrew Roberts, for a long time Chay Blyth’s right hand man, who also helped Mike Golding and Dee Caffari with their round the world campaigns. “Andrew is doing all the numbers. He is worried about the safety side of things – his usual things. It is like having your Dad working with you!”

The issue, as always with White, is one of money. He has seed funding in financial software company BluQube, who also back Katie Miller and her Figaro campaign, but their role is in helping White in the quest for his £1.4 million budget. “My sponsor BluQube has got a marketing agency involved, so it is a much bigger machine, which creates a much better effect when they call up – rather than just me doing the calling. It is all going quite well, although it is very strange to let go of the reins on a daily basis.

“The problem we are coming up with at the moment is that people’s budgets have been allocated. I am confident we will find someone this year. The slot is ready to refit the boat, so it can happen. If not, we’ll do it next year and see where that takes us.”

He and the bluQube team have a number of hot contacts already. “We have a couple of really good ones, but they are thinking of next year. There is one other guy I met at Cowes, so I am pursuing that. It is not ideal to take it to the wire but we have done it before, although with lesser amounts of money. We have time at the moment it is just a case of meeting the right person on the right day and him saying ‘yes, we’ll do it, off you go’.” The latest he reckons he leaves is mid-December.

White believes that if it all works out he might be able to take five days off VDH’s 122.5 day record. “It is down to weather. If I could take five days off it I would be really happy and I think that would put it safely out of sight for a bit longer. Theoretically if you are as quick as VDH in the south that is okay and you can take five days off each way in the Atlantic. He was 31 days down, 60 days round the bottom and 30 days back up again.”

Given White’s performance in the Vendee, not just getting the boat around the world, but his unique, matter-of-fact PR style, we reckon this is a great opportunity for a backer.