Skandia support Nick Maloney in Vendee Globe

Skandia support Nick Moloney for the 2004 Vendée Globe © Skandia Geelond Week

Skandia announces crucial support for Nick Maloney’s Vendee Globe Campaign

Geelong/Melbourne. Today Skandia announced sponsorship for top Australian skipper Nick Maloney to enable him to secure Ellen Macarthur’s Open 60 monohull ‘Kingfisher’ to compete in the 2004 Vendee Globe race. First stop will be the Offshore Challenges run trans-Atlantic race qualifier, east-west against the main contenders for the Vendee and Nick is hugely psyched to be taking part in the event after months on the sponsorship trail. The Open 60 will undergo intensive modifications and Nick will be working closely with Rob Humphreys and Merf Owen to optimise the boat to suit his needs.

Maloney is somewhat of a legend in his native Australia and that legend is growing in stature internationally. The 35 year old is the only person to have windsurfed across the infamous Bass Straits and has sailed around the World aboard Dennis Conner’s ‘Toshiba’ as well as setting the fastest circumnavigation aboard Bruno Peyron’s ‘Orange’ maxi-catamaran. Without drawing breath he’s competed in the America’s Cup with John Bertrand on the ill-fated ‘One Australia’ campaign and is the holder of no-less than nine World Speed Records!

Adding Maloney to the already impressive Team Skandia is a significant feather in the company’s cap and they now boast the very highest of profile sailors in their stable alongside sponsoring two of the world’s great regattas-Skandia Cowes week and Skandia Geelong week plus huge continued support for the grass-roots of sailing. I caught up with the enigmatic Maloney just before the press release:

MW: Can you tell me more about what Skandia has offered to you in sponsorship terms?

NM: The situation that we have with Skandia is sponsorship support to progress us through this refit stage and onto the Transat which is probably the most crucial point of the project. If we weren’t refitting right now then we would basically be out of the event in any realistic terms. Sure we could make the event by going into a late refit because I’m qualified and the boat’s qualified but to be competitive is another issue so we’re really fortunate to have their support. Not only is Skandia standing beside us in sponsorship to keep us in the loop and keep us in the race but they’re also putting up the presence to help us to continue to find further sponsorship to get us onto the Vendee start line and to get us around the globe.

MW: That is crucial isn’t it to find other partners…

NM: I’m quite confident with where we’re at right now that we’ll get there but Skandia’s support will enhance our preparation and our performance level.

MW: Offshore Challenges have taken over the Transat event as organisers so do you have any input into the running of the event and how closely are you working with them?

NM: Well not so much input into the race as I haven’t actually done it myself although I’ve sailed that passage once before aboard Playstation, east-west in the North Atlantic and we ended up with a seriously busted boat!! But I do work closely with Offshore Challenges in the promotion and attraction of sponsors for the event. It’s great when a sponsor can actually get a hand on a competitor in the race and that’s where I play a role.

MW: How many entries do you think the race will attract?

NM: If you look at the Transat Jacques Vabres we had over 40 ‘flash’ boats and I think we’ll attract roughly the same number again. It’s a race that everyone enjoys because of its toughness and there are still quite a few guys who haven’t yet qualified so there’s a lot of stress and pressure to get there as this is the only qualifier left. I think though that everyone likes putting themselves to the test, that’s why most of these people sail these classes and sail these events…

MW: This is pretty much a dream come true for you as you’ve stated that you had three ambitions: The Volvo fully-crewed round the world, the Jules Verne and now singlehanded around the world…

NM: Yeah it’s pretty amazing to think that at 35 years of age I’ve climbed these mountains or will be climbing the last leg of the ‘mountain.’ I was sitting in Auckland at the maritime museum and for me I was hell bent determined to see if I could do the three. Was it a realistic option? No-one has ever done it before! Sir Peter Blake did the Jules Verne and dominated the Whitbread. Sir Robin Knox-Johnson did the Jules Verne and a solo lap of the planet but nobody, as far as we know and we put out the call, has done all three. So for me it would be a pretty big call from this little Aussie guy who’s battled his way out of Australia to live in Europe to take on three of the greatest ocean races in three of the toughest disciplines in the world.

MW: So why do you do it? To the average man on the street it’s absolute madness!

NM: I’m driven to push myself into achieving these goals really to find out more about myself. I do know myself very well and my mind very well and I learned a lot even in smaller projects like the windsurfing trip across Bass Strait (22 hours 19minutes!!!!) I learnt a lot about how I tick just going to the edge and pushing myself to the limit…

MW: Do you like what you see when you get to the edge?

NM: (laughs) Not all the time that’s for sure but the drive to the singlehanded discipline is quite bizarre because my background is in the fully-crewed divisions. The thing though that’s drawn me to it is the thought that here’s one person setting foot aboard this huge boat and taking it around the world. If you go to the start of the Transat in Plymouth and look around at your competitors, most of them are small, like Ellen and they get on these huge boats and they not only sail them across the ocean but race them. I’ve stood there many times just admiring their management and sailing skills and questioning myself ‘can I do that?’

MW: The human endeavour side very much fits in with what Skandia are trying to promote in their key company beliefs…Do you think that’s why Skandia have sponsored you?

NM: Yes I honestly do. I think that the challenges that I’ve put ahead of myself, and those of the rest of the Skandia squad (Sam Davies, Iain Percy etc) have put in front of themselves, are attacked with huge amounts of determination. Hopefully we inspire other people to achieve their goals whatever they may be. I do believe that Skandia view this as a fantastic journey and adventure beyond the yacht races and everything that they as a company portray is there in the Vendee Race.

MW: You’re taking a boat that’s already been around the world. Won’t it be a bit knackered? Do these boats have a lifespan of two Vendee’s?

NM: Well if they’ve got a lifespan of two Vendee’s then I think Kingfisher’s has quite heavily expired as it’s done three laps of the planet of which I’ve done virtually one onboard. She’s tired, there’s no doubt about it and we saw on the Jacques Varbre and the trip back that we are struggling for boatspeed although we know where it is in the boat and we know how to find it. What we need is the time and opportunity to make those changes and this sponsorship with Skandia has given us that opportunity.

MW: So what are the technical changes that you’ll be making?

NM: When we looked at the fleet we saw a huge jump in performance from the last Vendee to its predecessor-the boats were night and day and it looks as though, with this one, that we’ve gone that step again although not as dramatically. We’ll be looking at trying to improve the power package because all the new boats are very, very powerful. We’re not going to change the hull form because I like that as it is, I like a lesser wetted surface area and I think when you’re solo there’s a limit to how much power you can handle. We did see a difference in the Jacques Varbre to the race back where when the guys were double handed you could push the boat and they were out of town but on the way back they wrestled to handle the power. I’m not sure those guys are going to get on top of it and really harness that energy so I will be really concentrating on maximising what I can handle mostly within our sail-plan and foil packages.

MW: And you’ll be working with Rob Humphreys and Merf Owen…anyone else?

NM: No-one else but we’ll stay with the guys who know the boat as we don’t actually have time to re-invent the wheel although we are now in a great position to be on-time in refitting. We haven’t really been able to do an incredible amount of research as I’m not really up to wasting peoples time, I didn’t want to spend months and months going over old ground as I know the boat really well and the team does too and we’ve always had updates on where we are performance wise and we can quite easily know what we can do within the budgets and time-frame.

MW: How far down the design envelope do you think the Open 60’s are?

NM: I do think we have a long way to go and the introduction of designers like Bruce Farr for instance come in with their first boat and it’s a rocket-ship. There are other designers out there who aren’t dabbling in this rule yet so I think we have huge steps to take in the design arena. My ultimate goal was to build a boat and we were planning to take some of those huge steps and incorporate another design forum that was way out there…we have small radical designers, Paul Bieker for one, that have heaps of clues on these kinds of boats and are just busting to get out and go berserk so I think I might have taken that route…

MW: You didn’t find a sponsor to build a new boat…How did you find the whole sponsorship market as it’s one of the big issues in sailing at the moment?

NM: I did quite an innocent approach to Skandia as they came on board with Offshore Challenges through Sam Davies and that was a sponsorship that suited them very, very well with representation in the UK and France and a real tidy little package with a great sailor. Sam wasn’t present for Skandia Cowes Week but I was, so after fulfilling a corporate responsibility in the day, out of pure appreciation out of what Skandia had done for Sam, I made myself available at the hospitality tent to represent her and talk to guests. Through that, myself and Skandia drummed up a personal relationship unintentionally. To be honest we had approached Skandia prior to Cowes for Vendee sponsorship and it just wasn’t in their program at that stage but through this relationship that just built and built and built they started to reconsider it and started to look more closely at the event and decided that it does work for them.

MW: Do you feel comfortable being an ambassador for Skandia?

NM: I feel very comfortable being an ambassador for Skandia and I think they should be heavily rewarded within this industry for their open approach-they’re real people’s people. Take last night in the hospitality tent, they were getting a huge cheer and a chant from the guests and that was just fantastic. You walk into a room on many occasions when you meet sponsors for the first time and I hate it-sponsorship and me are tough bedfellows as I’m a sailor and I think most sailors would agree that getting money is a tough road. But the reaction you get from sponsors is either ‘you want something from us’ or ‘we’re proud to be associated with you’ and with Skandia it was very much the latter. They were extremely pro-active and remain so, they’re always there, always mingling with the people and genuinely want to see people having a good time and enjoying themselves.

MW: Best of luck Nick… rather you than me!

NM: Cheers!