Kingfisher Continues Sponsorship

Ellen MacArthur MBE officially opened the 48th London Boat Show at Earls Court, London, Great Britain, this morning, and then announced her future sailing plans and new title sponsorship deal

Kingfisher’s sponsorship will enable her to continue to work towards her goal – to be at the top of her sport.

Kingfisher plc, a leading international retailer for the home, announced today at the London Boat Show that it would be continuing it’s sponsorship of Ellen MacArthur MBE with a new five-year title sponsorship deal.

Key objectives of the sponsorship for Kingfisher are to build familiarity of the Kingfisher brand with its international audiences and to create an association between the Kingfisher corporate brand and its operating companies which include B&Q and Comet in the UK

Andrew Mills, Director of Corporate Affairs, explained the compelling reasons for continuing this relationship: ‘Ellen’s remarkable achievements over the last three years have exceeded all our expectations. We strongly believe that Ellen represents the qualities we value highly as a company – determination, skill and professionalism, combined with the ambition and ability to succeed. She is a constant inspiration to our 90,000+ employees around the globe, and we see parallels between her international ambition and our own. We are delighted to continue to support Ellen through the highs-and-lows of racing across the oceans.’

Ellen has enjoyed a winning association with Kingfisher plc since November 1998, and is delighted that the international home retail group will continue to back her for the next five years.

Well-known for her success as a single-handed yachtswoman, Ellen’s achievements were recently celebrated by ISAF and Rolex when she was honoured as the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year on 13 November 2001. Recently, she was also voted as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award; however despite being sandwiched between two celebrity footballers, David Beckham and Michael Owen. She has been honoured by HM The Queen who presented her with and MBE. Even as the youngest ever World Champion in the FICO skippers offshore championships – this is just the beginning for MacArthur and her team and Ellen remains committed to her own personal sailing goals.

Ellen believes that she still has much to learn and is looking forward to the challenges ahead: ‘I intend to use the next few years to expand my knowledge and experience, both technically, personally and as part of the team. As my objectives remain focused on the multihull circuit, I do not plan to compete in the 2004 Vendee Globe, it’s a tough race to do twice in a row. However that does not mean that I have ruled it out for the future!

Many people had assumed that Ellen would launch straight in to a new 60ft trimaran project, but she has set out a more measured approach to building her experience and confidence in this new discipline – albeit one that with Alain Gautier this year she has taken to very quickly; ‘I don’t want to rush in. I still have so much to learn. These boats are Formula 1 in every sense.’

Before her shift to multihulls, Ellen will race her beloved monohull Kingfisher in possibly the boat’s last serious solo race with Ellen at the helm – the 2002 Route du Rhum. This is a 2800 mile transatlantic race against the world’s best sailors and is France’s biggest sailing event outside of the Vendee Globe, the solo round-the-world race that put Ellen and Kingfisher on the map.

The Southern Ocean will follow next Winter – this time as part of a team – with Ellen and a 12-strong crew bidding for the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest boat around the globe, in any sailing vessel with an unspecified number of crew members. The current record is 71 days and 14 hours. ‘Taking on the Jules Verne record attempt next winter after the Route du Rhum will be another big learning curve, that really excites me. The 110 foot giant mega-catamarans are something else. Its going to be an challenging year!’

The programme will then build towards the ultimate trophy of success in the trimaran division of the 2006 solo transatlantic Route du Rhum with a new 3-hulled ‘Kingfisher’ designed in 2004 and launched during 2005.

MacArthur proved last year that whilst racing alone was possibly her forte, she certainly could be a team player and leader when she wanted – winning the Challenge Mondial with Alain Gautier in May, and then as co-skipper with Nick Moloney taking victory in the gruelling 8000 mile EDS Atlantic Challenge in the summer.

Despite the images of a lone girl on deck in the Vendee Globe, MacArthur’s challenges have always been about teamwork. Her Offshore Challenges Sailing Team launched today, is a key ingredient to her future success. The aim is to build a strong set of professional sailors – capable of working together in something like the Jules Verne, but equally capable of taking on their own solo challenges. OC’s Managing Director Mark Turner explained the philosophy; ‘We want to develop a strong team of sponsors, shore crew and top professional sailors across various disciplines. Nick Moloney is a good example, he has been a real asset to the team this year, and has enabled us to achieve more race successes without requiring Ellen onboard at all times. His dream is to follow Ellen in to Vendée 2004, and we’ll be working together to realise this – we’d like to have at least 2 boats in the next race. We’ll also not be ignoring some of the other less known solo events like the Mini Transat and the Figaro – short of the expensive F1 60 footers the latter is the top level professional racing circuit in Europe. In 2003 they move to a new class of specially designed 36 foot boats, and we plan to have OC Sailing Team presence, hopefully with the support of the UK’s sailing governing body, the RYA. Professional solo yacht racing deserves central support now, its done a great deal for the sport of sailing in general in the UK this year.’

Offshore Challenges will make further announcements of secondary and supporting sponsors over the coming months.

Outline provisional programme for Ellen MacArthur & team

2002

Feb – April : Ellen completes her book, “Taking on the World” for publication in the Autumn.
Nick Moloney, key part of the sailing team, will compete with Bruno Peyron on his Jules Verne attempt.

April 25 – 28 : Ellen crews for Alain Gautier on the new Foncia in first ORMA multihull Grand Prix, Atlantic coast.

May 1 – 4 : Kingfisher monohull races IMOCA Grand Prix Larmor Plage.

May 12 : Kingfisher monohull races La Regatta de Rubicon, 3000 mile IMOCA race France-Canaries-Italy.

May 20 : Ellen returns to France to race with Alain on Foncia in the ‘Course des Phares’ (Lighthouse race) from Calais-Calais.

June / July : Solo training on Kingfisher monohull.

Aug – Dec : Work-up Jules Verne boat, possible record attempts in the Atlantic.

Nov 10 : Route du Rhum on Kingfisher monohull.

2003

Jan – April : Possible Jules Verne round world record attempt [currently 71 days, 14 hours, 22 mins, 8 seconds] on existing maxi catamaran.

May – Oct : Open 60 trimaran ORMA season with Alain Gautier culminating in the Transat Jacques Vabre, once again Le Havre (France) – Salvador (Brazil) in November. Plus racing on Kingfisher monohull, on the IMOCA circuit with the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team.

2004-2006

Building towards 2005 launch of new 60 foot trimaran Kingfisher, and full entry of the ORMA circuit, culminating with the Route du Rhum in November 2006.