British Volvo Extreme 40 entry by Basilica

by G New / Basilica on 29 Oct 2005 The Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix gained another entry with the announcement that the British company Basilica Computing Ltd will be backing the entry of an all British team in the new multihull event.

Complimenting the entries already announced, Team Basilica - who will be sailing their cat under the burgee of Hayling Island SC - bring some extensive expertise previously seen in Olympic and World class racing events.

Nick Gorringe, Managing Director of Basilica Computing Ltd said; 'We are delighted to have an all British team of Olympic and International sailors representing us in this new and exciting, extreme multihull series.'

Nick has assembled a high-powered team to contest the new event - Hugh Styles, Tornado Olympiad will be helming with crewmembers; Peter Greenhalgh, Alister Richardson and James Grant.

Nick Gorringe, Managing Director of Basilica Computing Ltd is a keen sailor himself. He recently took part in the Global Challenge 2004/5, and expressed his pride in being able to back a truly British entry, 'We are delighted to have an all British team of Olympic and International sailors representing us in this new and exciting extreme multihull series.'

Scheduled to take place at the stop over ports of the Volvo Round the World race starting from Vigo, Sanxeno, Spain on the 6 November through the 10 November. The Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix is conceived as an event to add spectacle to the stopovers and will no doubt be a crowd pleaser if it achieves the up-close racing planned. After the first event prior to the Spanish start of the Volvo RTW, the boats will be transported in containers along with the Volvo Ocean Race Village to each port.

The expectations are that currently the VX40s will not go to Cape Town or Melbourne but will head straight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There is a strong possibility that Team Basilica will bring their boat home at this time in order to get more sailing time prior to the Rio event and may even manage an appearance with it at the London Boat Show.

With the first event due to start in Spain on the 6 November, time is short for the Basilica crew to accept their new boat from Marstron in Sweden and get in some sailing time. The boat arrived in Vigo on Tuesday the 25 October. The Basilica crew arrived in Spain on Wednesday to take ownership, with the intention to get on the water by the end of this week to start doing some shakedown on the boat.

Nick Gorringe added: 'We will be able to benefit from the time the other teams have had on the water and their experiences so far. The Basilica team will stay at the venue until the start of the first event and attempt to get as much time on the water as possible.'

Team Basilica:
Hugh Styles – Helm - An Olympic Tornado sailor who represented Team GBR at the Sydney Olympic Games 2000. He has won medals at World and European Championship levels. Previously ranked 2nd in the ISAF Tornado world rankings, a position he held for 2 years running. Prior to switching to Tornado sailing Hugh was Laser European champion.

Peter Greenhalgh – Crew – He’s represented Great Britain at every level from the British Youth Squad to GBR at the Sydney Pre-Olympics 49er Class. With 6 years of Olympic sailing as his grounding, he then moved onto winning the much coveted 18ft skiff worlds with his brother Robert and became an integral part of J-UK, commissioning and coaching sports boats. Peter’s brother Robert is also sailing on ABN Amro One in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Alister Richardson – Crew – Twice young sailor of the year, Alister began his professional career at a young age. Moving on from youth sailing he decided to team up with Peter Greenhalgh embarking on 6 years of Olympic sailing. Since then he has sailed with Hugh Styles in the Tornado and won the International 14 European and National Championships.

James Grant - Crew – Having competed at all levels, James found success in many of the skiff classes. He was an integral part of Robert Greenhalgh’s Ultra 30 Grand Prix winning team. James also found success in many of the top keel boat classes, for example Farr 40’s, and again sailing with Robert Greenhalgh in the Tour de Voille to 4th place. Working in parallel with professional sailing, he has been coaching top youth sailors to become future Olympians.

The other teams announced to date are:

Motorolo-CHR – Conrad Humpherys, Leigh McMillan, Will Howden

Team Holmatro – Mitch Booth, Herbert Dercksen

Volvo Ocean Race – Carolijn Brouwer, Sebastien Godefroid, Greg Homann, Jeroen van Leeuwen, Emma Westmacott

Extreme 40 Class details:
Length – 40ft (12.2m) Width – 23ft (7m) Sail area – 2 sail - 100sqm. 3 sail – 153sqm weight – 1,250kg

Wing Mast is rotating, carbon fibre with single set of spreaders and diamonds and single set of shrouds. Jib is self-tacking. Main is a fully battened, flat top. Genneker is on a furler mounted on a bowsprit.

Basilica Computing is a service-focused IT solutions provider. The key differentiator for us is our ability to take time out to understand our customers by listening to their needs and providing a service that mirrors exactly that. We consider ourselves to be trusted business advisors of IT and choose to focus our skills on key areas. Our ability to supply and support the required technology bolsters this methodology.

Basilica has been a key sponsor of sailing for many years. Previously a sponsor of Team Save the Children during the Global Challenge race, and more recently the J24 Worlds at Weymouth – the first World Championships to be held at the 2012 Olympic venue since the bid results were announced. The Volvo Extreme 40 represents excellent opportunities to promote our partners, suppliers and customers alike to a world audience through this high profile, fast-moving medium.

Company website: http://www.basilica.co.uk