|
 |
 | | | You are in: Other Sports: Sailing |
|
| | Monday, 8 July, 2002, 22:20 GMT 23:20 UK Moloney enters Vendee Globe  Moloney helped Orange to the Jules Verne record Ellen MacArthur's team-mate Nick Moloney has become the first official entry for the 2004 Vendee Globe single-handed around the world race. The Europe-based Australian sailor - backed by MacArthur's Offshore Challenges team - officially registered his entry with race organiser Philippe Jeantot. He now has eight months to secure a title sponsor and build an Open 60 raceboat to qualify for the 26,000 marathon. Moloney said: "I'm stoked to be the first official entry - this is the third big goal of my sailing career, and I really feel like we are on our way. "Finding sponsorship will be as challenging as ever, but we are already a long way along the road to the start line." Moloney's first solo test will be in the 2,800-mile transatlantic Route du Rhum race from St Malo to Guadeloupe in November.
He will race on the ex-'Cray Valley', the Finot 50 that won the Around Alone race class II in 1998. "The Route du Rhum is of course going to be a big test for me, one that I'm really looking forward to," he said. Moloney has competed in the America's Cup, Whitbread (now Volvo Ocean Race) with Dennis Conner and the Open 60 circuit as a winning co-skipper of Kingfisher. He was also a helmsman on PlayStation which entered The Race in 2001 and was the only non-French crewman on board "Orange", which recently set a new Jules Verne record for the fastest lap of the planet. The Vend�e Globe was the race that made a household name of MacArthur when she finished second to become the youngest and fastest woman to lap the planet in 2001. The Route du Rhum in 1998 was the warm-up race that persuaded Kingfisher plc to back her for the full Vend�e campaign. | | See also:  09 Feb 01 | Vendee Globe Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Sailing stories now: Links to more Sailing stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|  E-mail this story to a friend |
| |
| Links to more Sailing stories |
| | | ||
 | ||||
 | | Back to top
| ||
| ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |
