2010 was a very lean year for yacht sponsorship. Mike Golding Yacht Racing’s Imoca 60 was chartered out (renamed ‘President’ for the occasion) for the Barcelona World Race and was returned to them dismasted and in a sorry state. Undaunted, Mike set about putting her to rights while still negotiating a sponsorship deal. Now that is sealed, the pace has quickened and the prime target for the revamped boat is next year’s Vendée Globe.
His new title sponsor is the Spanish international wind energy company Gamesa, which has announced plans to make the UK the centre of its offshore wind business, starting with the establishment of an Offshore Technology Centre in Strathclyde Business Park. This allows Mike to continue his company’s association with ecologically-sensitive development, and gives him access to the funds needed to complete the conversion of the boat into a lean, mean singlehander.
Michel Desjoyeaux demonstrated the advantage of protecting the helmsman from the weather during his concentrated dash across the southern ocean in the last Vendée Globe, and one mod to Mike’s boat reflect this. However, he has gone a lot further.
Gamesa has been stripped of those winches which were really only needed for crewed racing, removing unwanted clutter and lightening the boat. Her new mast is non-rotating, reducing complexity and improving reliability. But the big surprise is that she has tiller steering – lighter, stronger and one less component to fail?
Here’s what Mike says about the project in his blog:
Through a series of planned modifications I believe the boat can be a highly competitive proposition for this race and nothing I have seen in the performances of the new boats on the Barcelona World Race has shaken my firm belief that our existing 2007/8 Owen Clarke Designed IMOCA 60 can be at the head of the 2012 Vendée Globe fleet. Quite apart from the obvious advantages of knowing our boat and having already gone through the early breakage phase most race boats go through the IMOCA rule has moved somewhat in our favour, leaving us with grandfathered design elements (to our advantage) and with some relatively easy (if quite expensive) further modifications we can be sure of a competitive entry into the 2012 edition of this non-stop solo around the world race the Vendée Globe.
What we can control I believe we have – but what we cannot control completely is all the pieces of the puzzle that must surely fall into place over the next few months…
