My cynicism was unfounded and apart from 6 hours of motoring we have found wind, albeit smack bang from where we want to go! We are 10miles SW of Cabo De Gata with 25 knots of wind flying our J3 and 1 reef in the main which will shortly be 2 reefs. Sea state is typically Med like, short steep waves which cause the boat to slam violently every now and again catching the unsuspecting off guard.

Importantly the sun is shining, temp at about 25 degrees and I am sporting a pair of board shorts and a t-shirt. Not all bad I hear you say! The winds on this trip have allowed us to fly every sail onboard apart from the storm jib, which I hope will stay firmly in its bag!

The weather files are unusually favourable and the computer tells us the fastest route to Monaco is to tack off Cabo De Gata and head ESE to Petit Port O Porticioli in Algeria where we’ll tack again and head for our destination passing close to Mallorca on the way. We hope to arrive on the 19th which will make for an 8 day trip. Another personal record if it happens and thats a big IF!

Will, Clarke and Jordon are in fine form and the night watch tales are in full swing and immensely entertaining. I do like sailing with a crew particularly these guys who A. Know the boat inside out and B. Are hugely passionate about our campaign and think constantly about the boat and how to improve performance and reliability.

We had a small water leak into the engine box yesterday and I bet Clarke the first round of drinks on arrival that it was coming through the propeller shaft. Alas I was wrong, so I have to find a bar which serves Espresso Martini’s on arrival.

Any pointers anyone?

72 hours into delivery from Gosport to Monaco the boat is within 10 miles of Gibraltar, an exceptionally fast trip so far!

Unfortunately when we enter the Mediterranean Sea the wind will surely die and we will be left no choice but to brutalise our 37 horsepower engine for the whopping 5 knots speed it will give us.

This trip down gives us the chance to test all the systems, the small changes we have made and a couple of new sails that we have built in preparation for the Vendee Globe. The sails we have built are high wind sails and the conditions we have faced have been ideal for that. From Ushant the wind built slowly and peaked at 40 knots off the north coast of Spain and the boat and sails performed perfectly. Top speed was just over 30 knots but more importantly the average speed was high and the boat handling was vastly improved.

Sailing with a crew allows us to be more efficient and fast tracks the learning but also highlights any potential issues. We have allowed some time for updates after the Monaco GP before I set off across the Atlantic on my own. By then HUGO BOSS will be in true Vendee Globe trim.

Wind has just arrived, 30 knots on the nose……

Today, marking six months to the start of the Vendée Globe, Alex Thomson unveiled the new-look HUGO BOSS at its home in Gosport.

After an intensive refit period Thomson also revealed his plans for two gruelling Transatlantic Record attempts as he starts the final countdown to the ultimate offshore race, the Vendée Globe

Confirming that the Farr designed yacht, purchased in 2011, will be used for the 24,000 mile race, following successful performances during the Transat Jacques Vabre and B2B race in 2011, Thomson showed the impressive new chrome-effect which has been applied during its recent refit.

Thomson revealed that over the coming six months he will be completing over 12,000 training miles on board HUGO BOSS including two single-handed transatlantic record attempts. The offshore training will start on Friday, 11 May, with a 2,000 mile trip to the Mediterranean where the boat will participate in activity around the Monaco F1 Grand Prix.

“With just six months to go until the start of the Vendée Globe we are really in countdown mode and the focus for me is to spend as much time as possible on-board in training and under race-conditions,” said Thomson. “I’m really happy with the modifications we’ve made to the boat and after the success of the Transat Jacques Vabre and B2B races at the end of last year I’m really itching to get racing again.” 

Key events in the lead up to the Vendee Globe:

• May – Monaco, F1 Grand Prix
• June – Cadiz to San Salvador (Transatlantic record attempt)
• July – New York to UK (Transatlantic record attempt)
• August – Cowes Week
• November – Vendée Globe

Stewart Hosford, Managing Director of Alex Thomson Racing comments: “We have an exciting year ahead of us and we are looking strong. Our preparation has been great and we are exceptionally committed to the programme for the next 6 months. Alex has been at a fitness training camp and is in very good shape and is extremely focussed on the Vendée Globe in November.

“We are also very excited with our new partners Caterham Composites, who have provided their knowledge and expertise to help us optimise a fantastic boat for the Vendée Globe.”

The Black & White boat, which most recently secured 5^th place in the famous Sydney-Hobart race in 2011 and having completed two circumnavigations, will be taking in eight stops over the next six months giving friends and VIP guests of HUGO BOSS across Asia the rare opportunity to experience the excitement of sailing on the 60 foot racing yacht.

Between now and September the tour will take in Shanghai, Taipei, Sanya, Pattaya, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

Keep an eye on our website and Facebook pages for more details regarding specific dates and locations, and if you see the boat don’t forget to take your own pictures to share with us!

Sophie Ciszek (AUS) grew up on a sailing yacht cruising the Pacific with her family, and started racing dinghies at the age of 7. She’s a clinical myotherapist and ex-professional surfer.

Sophie has spent the past 7 years doing a lot of offshore sailing mostly in Australia, the Mediterranean and crossing the Pacific, clocking up around 40,000 nm.

Major offshore races include the Sydney to Hobart.  During the race, where Sophie was one of only a few real sailors aboard a Volvo 60, one of the guest crew members claimed to have hypothermia.  The doctor’s solution was Sophie to strip down to her underwear and lie with the ill guest wrapped in a foil blanket!  She lasted about 20mins!

Sophie would love to do some solo racing and more racing overseas.

We’re recruiting an Event & Logistics Co-ordinator for a 6 month contract. The ideal applicant will have a knowledge of sailing, strong organisational & communication skills, ability to work under pressure and a willingness to travel. The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring the HUGO BOSS boat meets its corporate and race responsibilities including international hospitality events and Vendee Globe race start. Responsibilities will include organisation of accommodation, subsistence, travel, pre-event planning and delivery of hospitality events.

Only candidates with relevant experience and who are local to Gosport need apply. Please submit your application letter & CV to info@alexthomsonracing.co.uk – we’re very sorry but we won’t be able to reply to everyone.

The hospitality programme will be starting on 26th March so if you’re in Hong Kong, keep an eye out for HUGO BOSS sailing past!  We’d love to see pictures so if you catch a glimpse, do share your photos with us.

We’ll take this opportunity to introduce new crew member Jesse Naimark-Rowse (USA).  Jesse started sailing dinghies when he was 6 and now has 70,000nm of sailing experience.  He completed studies in boat design and has since mixed sailing and design work across the globe. Races of note include the solo Mini Transat and double-handed TJV.  He’d love to do the Barcelona World Race, and to win a TJV or Route du Rhum.

Jesse ran into a whale on the way back from Hawaii in an Open 50, at speed.  He woke up as he was thrown out of his bunk and into the bulkhead.  The boat wiped out; word was that the whale came at them!

Tapey started sailing when he was 10 years old in Cornwall, UK, and really got stuck into the offshore side while studying Aeronautical Engineering.  He has covered approximately 25,000 sailing miles around the Mediterranean, UK and Australia.  He’d love to skipper and win the Clipper Round the World race.

Tapey once spent so long repairing something at the top of a mast that the rest of the crew left for lunch, leaving him stranded!

As the only Brit on board, it won’t surprise you that he can’t face the day without a cuppa tea!

Skippering the boat is Australian Simon McGoldrick.  He crewed on board HUGO BOSS for the Rolex Sydney to Hobart race in December and has been with the team since last summer.

Simon was conceived on a boat, and with yachting in his blood, began sailing at the age of 6.  He spent his youth racing dinghies before becoming a Naval Architect and designing boats.  Simon has competed in major offshore races including the Mini Transat, Fastnet, Sydney to Hobart and Maxi World Cups.  He has completed four Atlantic crossings and one Indian Ocean crossing, and has around 60,000 nautical miles under his belt.

During the Mini Transat a shark attacked the keel of Simon’s boat!  He was sleeping heavily, but the bang woke him up suddenly.  A shark was the last thing he expected to see. It took two bites from the bulb of the keel.  The rest of the competitors, who were mostly French, found it very amusing that an Australian was attacked by a shark!

Simon would love to win the Global Ocean Race or the Barcelona World Race.

The tour schedule is packed, and the boat will be going to cities we’ve never visited before, so there’s a lot of preparation both here at Alex Thomson Racing HQ and in Asia, where the technical team will be measuring berths, finding yacht clubs, checking harbour depths, planning sailing days…and much more.

Soon we’ll be putting up pictures of the fantastic crew who will be looking after the Black & White Boat for the next 12 months and beyond.

As the temperature in the UK drops below freezing, we are casting our minds back to warmer days last year, and the epic day that saw Alex attempt the infamous ‘keel walk’ stunt again.

You may remember the image from his last attempt several years ago.  It’s a great picture, but many people doubted it’s authenticity and thought it might be Photoshopped.  So this time Alex decided to get a camera crew involved.  And here is what happened…

KEEL WALKER: Alex Thomson (Follow @alexthomson99)
YACHT SKIPPER: Ross Daniel
YACHT: IMOCA 60 ‘HUGO BOSS’, Designer Finot-Conq
COMBINED SAILING EXPERIENCE OF CREW:  45 years
WEIGHT OF YACHT:  8.2 tonnes
WEIGHT OF KEEL:  4 tonnes
JET SKI ENGINE SIZE:  255 horsepower
REQUIRED WIND SPEED:  17 – 19 knots
REQUIRED SEA STATE:  Slight (waves 0.5 – 1.25 metres)
REQUIRED SAILING SPEED: 9 knots
SAILING ANGLE OF YACHT TO LIFT KEEL OUT OF THE WATER:  45°
MAXIMUM ANGLE OF YACHT: 70°
MAXIMUM SAILING TIME WITH KEEL OUT OF THE WATER:  45 – 60 seconds
SKIPPER’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE:
Getting the keel out of the water and keeping it there requires precision sailing and knowing the boat inside out.
From his position at the helm, Ross cannot see either Alex or the jet ski, so he relies on the information given to him by the spotter (port side of stern / left back).
MAJOR RISKS:
- The boat coming down on top of Alex, the jet ski and its driver.
- The wind is unpredictable; a momentary gust or drop will affect the direction and speed of the boat in an instant.
- The keel hitting Alex – 4 tonnes of lead moving at 10mph – the equivalent of being charged by an elephant!

Find out more at www.facebook.com/alexthomsonracing 8 tonnes of carbon fibre yacht, a 255 horsepower jet ski, 45 combined years of sailing experience, and one crazy guy in a suit. Alex Thomson attempts what he calls ‘The Keel Walk’, a stunt that has become infamous throughout the world thanks to the iconic image of Alex ‘riding’ the keel of his 60ft yacht ‘HUGO BOSS’.

Keep an eye on Facebook for updates and expect a pretty special looking boat to emerge from the shed in the spring!

IMOCA skipper to round off a dramatic 2011 in style

Of the 89 yachts on the starting line of this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, only one bears a GB sail number.  But Alex Thomson, solo round-the-world sailor, and HUGO BOSS skipper, is used to being in a minority.  The IMOCA Open 60 class in which he races has historically been dominated by the French, and of the 15 sailors confirmed for next year’s Vendée Globe, only three are British.  Unfazed by all of this however, the 37 year-old Hampshire-born Thomson is, after a year of mixed fortune, more driven than ever to succeed in his quest to become the first Brit to win the ‘Everest’ of offshore sailing races, the Vendée Globe.

The latter part of 2011 has taken a fortuitous turn for Thomson, who, in January, was forced to pull out of the Barcelona World Race after being diagnosed with severe appendicitis.  Since that huge disappointment, Alex and his team have been working hard to prepare as comprehensively as possible for the 2012 Vendée Globe.

In November, Alex and Spanish co-skipper Guillermo Altadill achieved a 2^nd place result in the Transat Jacques Vabre race ahead of, amongst others, Banque Populaire, Safran, and British rival Mike Golding on Gamesa.  Shortly afterwards, Alex departed St. Barts on the single-handed ‘return leg’ race, the Transat B to B.  Alex’s first major single-handed race in over a year was bound to be challenging, but he could not have foreseen being forced to salvage a spinnaker from under the boat after the halyard snapped, and diverting his course significantly after a gate was enforced by the race committee following a severe weather warning.

Fresh from his fourth place finish in this immensely testing solo Atlantic crossing, Thomson is due to arrive in Sydney on 23^rd December, where his Rolex Sydney Hobart Race entry yacht – the Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed Open 60 on which he completed the Rolex Fastnet race earlier this year – awaits.  The boat arrived in Australia on December 5^th and is currently berthed at the Cruising Yacht Club in Sydney’s Rushcutters Bay.

Alex is set to complete an offshore treble when he crosses the finish line in Hobart, covering approximately 9000 sea miles in two months.  This phenomenal achievement will stand him in good stead in terms of his Vendée Globe preparation but, with the drama of the Sydney to Hobart still to unfold, Alex isn’t celebrating yet.

‘The Sydney Hobart isn’t a prospect to take lightly,’ said Thomson, currently having a few days of well-earned rest in the UK.  ‘Even after the really difficult time I had on the B to B, I recognise the completely different set of challenges ahead of us.  Obviously the boat is optimised for single or double-handed racing, so with a full crew on-board she feels pretty
packed.  And of course, the conditions en route are renowned for being unpredictable.  But it’s great to be flying the flag for the UK in such a prestigious race, and lining up with some of the world’s best crews.’

Joining Alex on-board HUGO BOSS for the historic race, which starts in Sydney Harbour at 13h00 on Boxing Day, will be his brother, David Thomson, also an experienced round-the-world sailor, Ross Daniel, who crewed on-board HUGO BOSS in the 2007 edition of the race, Lorenzo Giacomuzzi (IT), Simon McGoldrick (AU) and Huw Fernie (GB).

For more information on the race, visit www.rolexsydneyhobart.com

Caterham Composites is the design and performance specialist division of Caterham Group, the parent company of the Caterham F1 Team and Caterham Cars. Caterham
Composites will lend their expertise in building technology solutions for carbon fibre structures in the motor-racing and airline industries to Fiveº West’s ocean racing campaigns.

The partnership is an unprecedented move in competitive sailing, combining great
British ocean racing talent and the technology and performance management
expertise of Caterham Composites.  Alex Thomson Racing will be the first to benefit from the partnership.  Following his recent 2^nd place finish in this year’s Transat Jacques Vabre and 4^th place completion of the Transat B to B, Alex Thomson now has his sights set on being the first British sailor to win the solo, round-the-world Vendée Globe, which
starts on November 10^th, 2012.  The partnership with Caterham Composites will facilitate the performance optimisation of Alex’s Open 60 yacht, HUGO BOSS, using advanced research and methodology not previously available to sailing teams.

‘We are very excited to be sharing our research and the outstanding expertise of
our technical team with Alex Thomson and the 5ºWest team,’ said Mike Gascoyne,
CEO of Caterham Composites and Chief Technical Officer of Caterham F1 Team.  ‘This is a great opportunity to apply our knowledge to a different sport and to test our systems, while working with Britain’s best solo ocean skippers.’

‘Formula 1 and ocean yacht racing teams face many of the same challenges,’ said Stewart
Hosford, Managing Director, 5ºWest.  ‘Reliability, performance, weight and safety are all similar concerns and like all high technology sports it is about having the best team and realising that the decisions you make six, and twelve, months in advance of a big race are as important as those made on the race course itself’.

For  more information on the race, visit www.vendeeglobe.org/en/

Following a meeting of the Jury, presided over by Gilles Vavasseur, it was agreed that HUGO BOSS should be ranked fourth, tied on points with Gamesa.

The weather gate was introduced to the course following the development of a severe storm.

At the time of the decision HUGO BOSS was in fourth place, ahead of British rival Mike Golding on board Gamesa, with an advantage of almost 60 miles to the finish line. It was
the most Northerly and Westerly boat of the fleet on a direct course to Lorient, with a real chance of decreasing the distance to the front three boats. Competitive HUGO BOSS skipper, Alex Thomson, had taken a tactical and strategic decision to sail this short, fast and simple route to the finish line, with the aim of completing the single handed race near the top of fleet.