Ecover arrives in the UK

Saturday, 13 September 2003

Image © Ivor Wilkins

ECOVER, Mike Golding Yacht Racing’s newly built Owen Clarke Open 60 has made an appearance as the features boat at the Southampton Boat Show in perfect time. It was shipped from Tauranga, New Zealand at the end of July and arrived in Zeebrugge in the early hours of Monday 1 October, where the team worked round the clock to get the boat off the ship, back into pristine condition and ready for stepping the mast. By Tuesday 2 September, the rig was fully stepped and ready for fine-tuning back into the state that had been tried and tested during the yacht’s first sails in New Zealand. On Wednesday 10th September, the boat was dedicated to Ecover on the Schelde river in central Antwerp and minutes after the ceremony, the team left Belgium for a somewhat windless sail back to the Southampton Boat Show. The new ECOVER is 3rd in the line of Open 60 development from the Owen Clarke Design Group - the test program, exclusive to Mike Golding Yacht Racing, is the most extensive by far in Open 60 design. The result is a yacht that pushes the boundaries of existing knowledge of Open 60 sailing whilst staying within the practical limitations that are defined by the testing nature of the 2004 single-handed, non-stop, round-the-world Vendée Globe. Over the next year ECOVER will be tested in 3 transoceanic races in the build up to the Vendée Globe. ECOVER’s first race is the Transat Jacques Vabre – a double-handed race starting on the 1 November 2003 from Le Havre to La Bahia, Brazil. ·Mike Golding Yacht Racing confirmed that Brian Thompson will be Golding’s co-skipper Thompson, best known for his multihull sailing, also held the round Britain and Ireland record for 9 years. His knowledge of routing and navigational skills proved very valuable to Golding during the 2003 Calais Round Britain & Ireland and Fastnet races.

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