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.

The 3,000 mile race, which has been a challenging race for all competitors paves the way for the Vendee Globe in November 2012.

Whilst a strong achievement for Alex Thomson and the HUGO BOSS Sailing team this race hasn’t been without drama. Earlier this week a weather gate was introduced by the
race committee due to the development of a severe mid-Atlantic storm, which was followed by decision to shorten the race. This decision had a big impact on Alex’s position in the fleet, and not only pushed him into sixth, from fourth position, but also forced him through some of the windiest and roughest parts of the low pressures sweeping across the Atlantic.

Commenting at the finish Alex said “I am very happy to have finished. This has been a challenging race with confused seas and very strong winds. Despite the changes to the course and my final position I am relieved to have successfully completed this important preparatory race for the Vendee Globe. It has been an excellent test for me and the boat and I am really happy with how we have both performed. I believe I was penalised by the course change and I made an application for redress which is normal practice in this situation – onwards now to 2012.”

Alex took 10 days 1 hour 43 minutes to complete 3,424 nautical miles at an average speed of 14.16 knots. Alex has a short number of days to get HUGO BOSS to port before jumping on a plane to skipper another IMOCA 60 in this years Sydney to Hobart race, which sets off from Sydney on 26 December.

“At around 4am this morning I was sailing downwind with the A3 sail up – the biggest sail on-board for downwind conditions – I noticed that the sail wasn’t all the way to the top of the mast, so tried to grind it back to the top and in the process the halyard snapped sending the sail crashing into the sea. We were still travelling at around 12 knots, so unfortunately the boat carried on straight over the sail where it got caught around the rudders keel.  I spent about 30 minutes trying to pull it free, but it was caught tight, I then tried backing the boat up under sail, but nothing helped. Having decided I would have to cut it free and going and getting a knife for the job, I had one last attempt at pulling it free and finally managed to get a some of the sail on-board, as I was doing this the boat turned further down wind and I slowly managed to get the whole sail back on board and stowed down below.  I haven’t had a chance to inspect the sail yet, so don’t know what damage has been caused. Without the A3 halyard I’m now sailing under a fractional rig, with a smaller sail. I’m pleased I managed to save the sail, but am pretty knackered now as this took over an hour, so I’m planning on getting some sleep now before inspecting the sail and looking at repair options later on today.”