Thomson moves on - Hugo Boss up for sale

by Lucy Harwood on 19 Sep 2009
Alex Thomson Racing today announced the purchase of the radical Juan Kouyoumdjian designed IMOCA 60 Pindar. The team intends to compete within the IMOCA circuit, including the Barcelona World Race starting on the 31st December 2010 and next edition of the Vendée Globe in 2012.

The boat was constructed at TP Cookson’s yard in New Zealand, and launched in 2007. The boat is designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian, otherwise known as ‘Juan K’, who designed the two ABN AMRO Volvo 70s and most recently the winning Volvo Ocean Race boat, Ericsson 4. 'I have wanted to work alongside Juan for some time now, and this is a great opportunity to do that over the next three years,' commented Alex Thomson.

The Pindar IMOCA 60, which conforms to the new IMOCA regulations, is one of the most powerful in the IMOCA fleet. 'I believe that power equals speed, and so it makes sense to buy the most powerful boat in the fleet. I believe that it will really suit my sailing style and that the true potential for this boat has yet to be achieved. I think I can push the boat to the limits that it was designed for. I am very excited to start sailing on her, and see what she and I are capable of over the next three years. The Barcelona World Race will be our first major race together and I will be hoping to go one better than last time!' The latest rules changes within the IMOCA class means that a boat of this power will not be able to be built again in the future.

In conjunction with the purchase of Pindar, Alex Thomson Racing today announces that the current IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss (built in 2007) is now available for purchase. Alex will compete onboard the existing Hugo Boss in the final IMOCA race of this year, the Transat Jacques Vabre this November.

The HUGO BOSS IMOCA 60, is a record-breaking boat. In 2008 Alex broke the existing 24 hour record for a 60 foot yacht onboard HUGO BOSS, setting a new record of 501.3nm at an average speed of 20.9knts. It is a Finot Conq design, built at Neville Hutton’s boat yard in Lymington under the careful supervision of Jason Carrington and his team. Built from a female mould and is the result of extensive research, including a comprehensive campaign of tank testing, CFD and routing simulation, followed by 26,000 hours of building. HUGO BOSS was engineered by a team from SP Technologies led by Paolo Manganelli, using Kevlar honeycomb and Corecell core materials with Gurit custom optimized pre-preg carbon.

'Hugo Boss is the third most powerful boat within the IMOCA class, it has the potential to win races, and I truly believe it could have won the last Vendée Globe, and will be a serious contender for the next Vendee Globe! Hugo Boss is ready to start the Vendee Globe today and it will be very sad to move on, but I will enjoy the final race onboard the boat in the Transat Jacques Vabre this November,' said Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson.