With over 250,000 racing miles and some 25 equator crossings, he has competed in three previous Vendée Globes, held three world championship titles and created a reputation for being “King of the South”, setting the fastest speed record in the Southern Ocean. Mike Golding commented, “This is obviously fantastic for us to be able to formally announce our partnership with Gamesa. With this support and our existing infrastructure we are now certain to be able to mount a very competitive campaign for the 2012 Vendée Globe. The Vendee Globe remains the event I would most love to win. Furthermore, having spent the past decade championing environmental products and issues, it is really exiting that Gamesa’s core business is in renewable energy – an area increasingly critical to performance in competitive round the world yacht racing.”

Jorge Calvet, CEO of Gamesa explained that “this sponsorship comes at an important time for Gamesa and our planned programme of expansion into the offshore market in UK. The sea and the wind are similarly part of the Gamesa challenge and there are synergies between Mike’s Vendée Globe campaign and our own activities in the wind power market in the UK and globally. We have a vigorous business plan over the coming years with many common values, including innovation, teamwork, leadership and passion for our customers, and we look forward to working with Mike and his team to achieve both our goals and his.”

The boat

Designed by the Owen Clarke team, Mike Golding’s Open 60 is currently undergoing some major optimisation work in the UK, with a view to being on the water again later this summer. The first major event for the team will be the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre from France to Costa Rica in October 2011. During May 2012 the Gamesa IMOCA 60 is planning to race fully crewed in the scheduled Europa Race before the team makes final preparations for the Vendée Globe.
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