Video: Meet INEOS Team UK designer Ollie Pendleton

Ollie Pendleton is part of the design team at INEOS Team UK © Ineos Team UK

Moving Parts is an INEOS TEAM UK series looking at the invaluable work of different members from across the team. This time we are looking at a member of the design team, Oliver ‘Ollie’ Pendleton.

Sailing is in Ollie Pendleton’s blood. Ollie, a member of the INEOS TEAM UK design team and a local Portsmouth lad who enjoys watching Portsmouth FC at Fratton park, sailed on his first cross-Channel voyage to the north of France with his parents and grandparents at the age of just six weeks old. Since then he has spent more time on the water than he can remember.

“Being a south coast family, my mum and dad always had a boat and we used to spend all of our summer holidays sailing around the south coast and northern France. After college I took a gap and did a Transatlantic crossing to the Caribbean, my one-year gap year slowly turned into a six years gap year. I did loads of sailing and travelling in the Med, the Caribbean and down to Australia.”

Ollie was not just sailing for fun though. He was a keen and competitive racer and like it is for every competitive sailor, being part of the America’s Cup, the pinnacle of yacht racing, was always the dream.

After returning from his travels around the world, Ollie put his qualification in yacht design from Southampton Institute to use and began working in various sectors across the marine industry ranging from yacht design companies through to designing powerboats and even a stint in product design. The America’s Cup was always in the back of Ollie’s mind, however, and when the opportunity came, he made sure to grasp it.