Artemis Challenge on day 6 of AAM Cowes Week
by Camilla Green & event media 14 Aug 2015 17:09 BST
8-15 August 2015
Zara Phillips joined rugby stars from England, France and Scotland in Cowes in the annual Artemis Challenge, as a fleet of 16 of the biggest ocean racing yachts in the world raced around the Isle of Wight in support of their chosen charities. Although the English summer delivered a deluge of rain, thunder and lightening, the competitive spirit was running hot ahead of the England-France clash at Twickenham this Saturday. Zara Phillips sailed onboard Artemis Ocean Racing with husband Mike Tindall, who was itching to beat his French rugby rivals Serge Betsen (on Musandam-Oman Sail) and Sylvain Marconnet (on SMA) to land the first blow for England. Scottish rugby legend Gavin Hastings completed the rugby line-up racing onboard the all-female boat of SCA.
But it was the impressive trimaran Musandam-Oman Sail, with the French team of skipper Sidney Gavignet and former Les Bleus flanker Serge Betsen, who claimed overall line honours at the head of the fleet of four multihulls, and received £2,000 for their charity of choice, the Al Hayat Association. In the competitive fleet of ten IMOCA monohulls, it was PRB, skippered by decorated French sailor Vincent Riou, who beat the world class line-up of offshore racers to claim £7,000 for the charity Action Enfance Fondation MVE. And in the battle of the two Volvo Ocean 65s, the all female Team SCA with Gavin Hastings onboard beat Dongfeng to claim £1,000 for Women in Sport.
Sidney Gavignet, skipper of Musandam-Oman Sail said, "We are very happy. The Artemis Challenge is a race that we have been doing for several years now and we are very happy to win it – we had some great guests onboard, famous French rugby player Serge Betsen and Ben Saunders, a celebrated British explorer. It is hugely satisfying to see the progression that our Omani sailors have made, for Oman Sail this win is very exciting, we are making big steps with our development. We have a bit of a love story with the UK; last year we broke the Round Britain and Ireland record and earlier this year, we added the Round Ireland record, we didn't break the Artemis Challenge record today, but maybe next time."
Olympic equestrienne Zara Phillips, who sailed on Artemis Ocean Racing, said, "It was a great day. Very exciting and good fun around the back of the island, windy but very wet! Bit disappointing that the wind died at the end but it was certainly the windiest and wettest Artemis Challenge I have ever done!"
Former England centre Mike Tindall, also sailing on Artemis Ocean Racing, added, "We put ourselves in a position, made a call to sail close to shore but it was the wrong call. A gamble. And then everyone came to a standstill at the end so we thought we had a chance. I saw Serge won – it's the only win he's getting this week! We're not losing to the French at Twickenham!"
Now in it's ninth year, the Artemis Challenge continues to be the pinnacle event at the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, attracting the biggest names in sailing and stars from sport and entertainment.
IMOCA 60 results:
1. PRB (Vincent Riou)
2. Groupe Quéguiner (Yann Eliès)
3. SMA (Paul Meilhat)
4. HUGO BOSS (Alex Thomson)
MULTIHULL:
1. Musandam-Oman Sail (Sidney Gavignet)
2. Concise 10 (Ned Collier-Wakefield)
3. Prince de Bretagne (Lionel Lemonchois)
VOLVO OCEAN 65:
1. Team SCA (Carolijn Brouwer)
2. Dongfeng Race Team (Graham Tourell)
www.artemischallenge.com
Oliver Cheshire swaps the catwalk for Cowes Week
Top British model, Oliver Cheshire, took to the water yesterday during Cowes Week to join British round-the-world solo sailor, Alex Thomson, in the Artemis Challenge. Completing the annual charity regatta in 5 hours 17 minutes and 24 seconds Oliver, Alex was the first British Skipper over the line and the HUGO BOSS team finished in 4th position in the IMOCA class.
The race, which awards £10,000 towards the winner's charity of choice, is an annual 50 mile race beginning and ending in Cowes, which brings together some of the biggest names in sailing from across Britain and Europe, many of whom are accompanied on-board by famous faces for the event.
Fashion model Oliver Cheshire, who was named as one of GQ's best dressed men this year, joined skipper Alex Thomson on-board HUGO BOSS, the IMOCA 60 boat that Thomson successfully sailed around the world in when he came third in the 2012/13 Vendee Globe.
Whilst missing out on the first place prize, Alex Thomson's sponsor, HUGO BOSS, donated £3,000 to a charity of Oliver's choice anyway as a thank you for taking part in the race. Oliver nominated Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity to receive the donation, one of the World's leading children hospitals.
This was Oliver's first time at Cowes Week and involvement in extreme sailing. On taking part in the experience he said; "I was really excited to be invited to join Alex Thomson on-board HUGO BOSS and to become a part of the team for the day.
"I was amazed to learn that this is the boat that Alex sailed around the world solo in. I was ready for dry land again after four hours, so I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to spend the best part of three months alone at sea on a boat like that.
Oliver added; "Whilst I don't think I'll be signing myself up for anything as epic as that anytime soon, the Artemis challenge was a fantastic experience and not like anything I've ever done before. I'd like to thank Alex and HUGO BOSS for inviting me to take part, and for the very generous donation they have made to Great Ormond Street Hospital. The money raised will help this amazing charity continue to provide world class care to their young patients and to pioneer new treatments and cures for childhood illnesses".
Alex said: "It was fantastic having Oliver join us on-board HUGO BOSS for the Artemis Challenge today. The event is always a highlight of Cowes Week and Oliver was a great sport, who wasn't afraid to get stuck in and do what he could to help speed us around the island.
"The conditions were changeable. All in all, it was a brilliant event and a pleasure to have Oliver join team HUGO BOSS for the day."
The Artemis Challenge, sponsored by Artemis Investment Management, has long attracted a whole host of high profile names, with previous celebrities joining the HUGO BOSS and Alex Thomson team including Ewan McGregor, Douglas Booth and Davina McCall. Since its inception, the race has made its name as one of the key spectator events of the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, which remains the world's largest sailing regatta and one of the UK's biggest sporting events.
Sultanate of Oman's Musandam-Oman Sail sweeps to victory
The brakes were definitely off when Sidney Gavignet's record-breaking crew, turbo charged for the day by French rugby legend Serge Betsen and polar explorer Ben Saunders hurtled across the finish line at a remarkable 35 knots.
They had spent 3 hours and 32 minutes on the water which was more than an hour outside the 2012 multihull record set by Foncia but two minutes faster than Ned Collier-Wakefield's trimaran Concise 10 and five minutes ahead of old rivals Prince de Bretagne who beat them across the line in 2014.
From a wet start, when the 16 strong Artemis Challenge fleet set off on the 50 nautical mile course around the Isle of Wight in torrential rain, the conditions proved testing with winds reaching around 16 knots and seas at the half way point around St Catherine's Point whipped up and uncommonly rough.
But such a test brought sailing skills and strength under the spotlight and Gavignet's Omani crew of Fahad Al Hasni, Yassir Al Rahbi, Sami Al Shukaili and Abdulrahman rose to the occasion with flying colours, which according to Gavignet was testimony to Oman Sail's tough development programme.
"We are very happy because this Artemis Challenge fleet is a very competitive one and our team with Ben Saunders and Serge Betsen worked well together so it was a very good result," said the Musandam-Oman Sail skipper whose duties include mentoring and inspiring young Omani sailors to perform.
"The work we are doing is paying off more and more. We are working and mentoring and they are learning and gelling so we have a good time and perform well together which is what any sporting team aims for. Our plan is to keep growing our performance slowly but surely.
"Sometimes we have felt a bit lonely as a multihull going round the island on our own but we are developing a love affair with British and Irish islands after setting a new Round Britain and Ireland record in 2014 and a new Round Ireland record earlier this year.
"Today we had other MOD70s and an 80 footer to race against which was great. It made it more fun and we are looking forward to racing with them some more."
Gavignet was not the only one to highlight the impressive teamwork among the Musandam-Oman Sail crew.
Polar explorer Ben Saunders was hugely exhilarated by his MOD70 experience.
"It was an absolutely amazing experience – I have never been that fast on a sailing boat ever before, the crew was amazing, really cool, calm and composed the whole way around, so skilled. They are constantly in motion, always busy on the boat, there was never a quiet easy moment, they were always pushing hard and tweaking or doing something. They were genuinely having fun. Lovely atmosphere on board, it was an incredible experience," said Saunders who plans to visit Oman next year after discovering how much the Sultanate has to offer for adventurers.
"I think Oman from an adventurers point of view is a real hidden gem, I think it has a lot to offer, amazing scenery, amazing history, amazing culture, the mountains sound fantastic, so I am certainly planning to go soon."
Serge Betsen was invited to join the Oman Sail crew since he is renowned as an inspirational sportsman but he admitted he was inspired by the teamwork on Musandam-Oman Sail.
"The way Oman Sail and Sidney empower their young sailors to be leaders in sailing is just fantastic and is exactly what I am trying to do with rugby in Cameroon where I have my own charity Serge Betsen Academy," he explained.
"The idea is to use sport and particularly rugby as a vehicle to make an impact and change the lives of kids so I think for Oman Sail it was a great achievement today.
"I understand that some of the young Omani sailors started sailing only four or five years ago and they are already very talented and really building their experience. It was amazing to see."
The Artemis Challenge title can now be added to the list of accolades being notched up by Oman Sail's MOD70 crew but according to Al Hasni, this one was a bit special.
"We are so happy to have won especially with all the other MOD70s to compete against in the race," he said.
"We didn't think we had won until we went round the forts near the finish line. You have never won until you cross the finish line so we didn't take our foot off the pedal until we had done that."
As well as the 2015 Artemis Challenge crown, Musandam-Oman Sail also won a £2000 charity prize, which is pledged to the Al Hayat Association, a non-profit organisation which was established in Oman in 2011 to raise drug awareness amongst young people.
MOD 70 racing heats up in the Artemis Challenge
After an impressive run of wins and records set in iconic offshore races over the last few months, Lloyd Thornburg's MOD 70 Phaedo3 lined up against some of the fastest boats in the world (including several other MOD 70's), for an inshore sprint around the Island of Wight in the Artemis Challenge. And they absolutely nailed the start against a fleet of some of the most experienced pro sailors in the world. "It's pretty gratifying to have a start like that," said Thornburg shortly after the race. "And it was great to finally race against some other MOD's."
In fact Thornburg never seems to rest. In the month of July alone, he and the crew of Phaedo3 set the elapsed time record in the Transatlantic Race and won the multihull class in the Transpac on Phaedo, his original 66-foot catamaran. The rainy English weather in Cowes was a bit chilly and grey compared to the tropical sun of Hawaii, but the Artemis Challenge was a great first race against the other veteran MOD's. And he and co-skipper Brain Thompson are already using the lessons they've learned here to make their trimaran even quicker for the Fastnet and other offshore races, (including racing against the other MODs) and record attempts.