Route du Rhum sets off on qualifier

by Conrad Humphreys on 1 Sep 2002 Conrad Humphreys sets off for his first 1500 mile solo qualifier as part of his preparation for the 2002 Route du Rhum



On August 31st, 2002 Conrad Humphreys, skipper of the winning yacht in the 2000/01 BT Global Challenge, will begin the first part of a 6-week
training programme in preparation for France’s most prestigious single-handed transatlantic race, the Route du Rhum.



Having spent the last 5 months building his project team, and securing the necessary commercial partners for this race, Conrad has chartered the
Dutch Open 40 “Syllogic” from Netherlands sailor Pieter Adriaans, who recently won his class in the 2002 Round Britain Race. Designed in 1999 for
the STAR Transat, Syllogic is one of the most innovative Open 40’s to be built. All carbon, with a cedar and nomex core, she has a mast that cants
25 degrees laterally and a swivelling keel. She is smaller than the two Open 60’s, ECOVER and Kingfisher that will be raced in the Route du Rhum, by
British Skippers, Mike Golding and Ellen MacArthur. However, as Conrad points out,



“She is a tough, well-built and well-maintained Open 40 with a good track record. My objective for the Route du Rhum is to learn the skills of solo
racing and complete the course. If I can win Class 3 in the process and manage to stay up with some of the bigger Open 50 yachts, then that will
be the icing on the cake.”



The Route du Rhum starts on November 9th 2002 in St. Malo and takes the fleet of 60 yachts across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe a distance of 3400
miles. Conrad is using this race as a part of his preparations to build a new British campaign for the 2004 Vendée Globe. Conrad is the youngest
sailor to have raced around the globe in both directions, having sailed as a team member onboard the W60 Odessa in the 1993/4 Whitbread (Volvo
Ocean Race) and last year having skippered the winning team in the BTGC 2000/1, he now sees the tough, single-handed Vendée Globe as his next
goal.



“Beginning a campaign like this is about surrounding yourself with the right people. I’m very lucky to have spent the last two years with some of the
most professional people I’ve met and now they are putting their belief and trust in me. My approach to preparing for the Vendée Globe is still the
same, it’s a race that requires teamwork and good leadership. As part of that team, I’m the lucky one that gets to head south, back into the
Southern Ocean and do the sailing. But onshore I have a group of people who are working tirelessly to make it happen.”



The lessons from leading not only a winning team in the BTGC, but also the prospect of leading a remote team in the Vendée Globe have attracted
the attention of some of the world’s leading management training colleges and blue chip companies who believe that sailing as a sport, provides the
perfect metaphor for business leadership and team work. Conrad has this year lectured to some of the country’s biggest corporations on leadership
including Pfizer, Microsoft, UBS Warburg, and BT. He also has worked with sports teams including the English Netball Team in their preparation for
the Commonwealth Games.



Conrad believes that to secure commercial sponsorship for sailing you cannot rely on pure media exposure as the hook, at least not yet. However,
large corporations are very interested in sailing as a sport because of its clean, positive image that appeals directly to their social and corporate
responsibilities and its use for developing world class teamwork and leadership.
As part of O6T’s Vendée Globe campaign, Conrad has used these
two areas to give immediate value to his sponsors. Working closely with Henley Management College, they are now developing new workshops on
leading remote or virtual teams, all relevant to today’s business trends.