Oceanracing Profisegler, Alex Thomson

Alex Thomson/Hugo Boss

2016 2nd Vendee Globe https://segel.de/oceanracing/vendee-globe/2016-2017/

2012 3rd Vendee Globe
2008 Vendee Globe(ABO)
2008 2nd Barcelona World Race
2006 5Oceans(ABO)
2005 Vendee Globe(ABO)
2003 2nd Transat J.Vabre
2000 3rd Europe1 Star,
2000 1st Calais-Round Britain Race
1999 7th Transat J.Vabre

18.11.2006
* Alex Thomson set a new 24hr solo monohull World Speed Record in December 2003 covering 468.7nm at an average speed of 19.5 knots during the Défi Atlantique, in which he finished 3rd.
* At 25, Alex Thomson became the youngest skipper ever to win a round the world race – the Clipper Race 1998/99.
* In October 2005 Alex Thomson stepped forward as the only skipper to confirm that he will be racing „3 in 3“: 3 grueling round the worlds in as many years: the solo VELUX 5 Oceans in 2006, the inaugural two-handed Barcelona World Race 2007 and the blue ribbon Vendée Globe 2008.
100,000 miles, 3 years, 1 goal: be the first Briton to win the Vendée Globe.

About HUGO BOSS
Sailing complements the sponsorship portfolio of HUGO BOSS which already includes Formula 1 (Team McLaren Mercedes), IRL (Penske Racing), Tennis (Davis Cup), Golf, Boxing (Vladmir Klitschko) and Soccer. In sailing, HUGO BOSS gets another platform to demonstrate its fashion competence both on the boat with BOSS GREEN and shore-side with BOSS BLACK. BOSS GREEN provides Alex and the crew with highly functional and technical outfits for all possible weather conditions around the globe while BOSS BLACK will dress the crew for every celebration function in the smartest possible way.
www.hugoboss-sailing.com

THE MAVERICK
THE TOP GUN FROM GOSPORT WITH A FAST BOAT AND A SEXY SPONSOR

Nationality: GBR
Age: 34 DOB: 18th April 1974
Place of birth: Bangor, Wales
Current residence Gosport, Portsmouth
Marital status Single

A sailing passage between UK and Majorca in 1991 revealed that there was more to life than London bar work and a job as packer in a plastics factory for 17 year-old Alex Thomson. It would be a further seven years before Sir Robin Knox-Johnston spotted this prodigious sailing talent and Thomson lead a crew of amateur sailors to victory in the 1998-99 Clipper Round The World Race. Aged 24 at the time Thomson remains the youngest skipper to have ever won a round the world race.
„You’ve got to have the drive and determination to continue when most people would stop“

Over the following five years, Thomson launched an assault on the solo and shorthanded sailing establishment, competing in the 1999 double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre, then, the following year, taking third place in the single-handed Europe 1 New Man Star and winning the Round Britain & Ireland Race. In 2003, he bought Roland Jourdain’s highly competitive Open 60, Sill and entered the Transat Jacques Vabre from France to Brazil with Jourdain on board as co-skipper: a combination that resulted in an outstanding second place. However, Thomson stunned the solo sailing circuit soon afterwards during the singlehanded Défi Atlantique race from Brazil to Europe by setting a new solo monohull 24-hour record of 468 miles at an average speed of 19.5 knots and finishing the race in third place: this double result confirmed his status as offshore solo sailing’s wild card.
„I consider this a team-based sport: there’s me, then there’s me and there’s my boat“

Winning the non-stop, round-the-world Vendée Globe is Thomson’s ultimate goal and armed with a powerful and committed sponsor he entered Hugo Boss in the 2004-05 edition of the race. Setting a blistering pace down through the North Atlantic and across the Equator, Thomson kept pace with the vastly more experienced solo skippers on their new boats in the lead pack, consistently in the front six from the Bay of Biscay to the coast of Brazil: precocious racing from a virtual newcomer and behaviour that caused one French sailing pundit to tag Thomson as „a mad young dog“ during a mid-race, radio interview. Plagued by light winds and technical problems, Thomson hung onto the race leaders until – after 26 days at sea – a Force 10 gale in the Roaring Forties broke the attachment of his boom to the mast, forcing this carbon fibre spar through the yacht’s deck.
„I want to complete the Velux 5 Oceans without breaking anything“

Since retiring from the Vendée Globe, Hugo Boss has competed in numerous inshore and offshore, fully crewed races including the 2005 Sydney-Hobart Race. Most recently, on the crewed delivery from Tasmania to Europe, the yacht dismasted in the Southern Ocean, 1,000 miles west of Cape Horn, but Thomson and his team sailed the yacht safely into port under jury rig.

Thomson has the skill and nerve to sail an Open 60 very, very fast. However, a large part of his success in the Velux 5 Oceans will depend on his shore crew’s skill in preparing Hugo Boss to withstand the brutal, racing pace demanded by her skipper.

SKIPPER HISTORY
1st Clipper RTW Race 1998-9, 2nd TJV 2003, 3rd Defi Atlantique, 24hr monohull solo record holder, youngest skipper to win a RTW race

Most frightening moment „Finished this record at 5 o clock in the morning and there was no one to speak to, I then slept for 24 hours, stressed out, scared ****less for some of it by the end of it when it’s all chilled out it was just a bit too much.“

THE BOAT
Boat name: Hugo Boss
Boat history: Ex-Sill, 2003- 3rd Defi Atlantique, 2nd TJV, 2nd Calais RBR, 2001 – 2nd EDS Atlantic Chall, 1st TJV, 2000-1 3rd Vendee Globe, 2nd The Transat
Sail number: 99 Designer: Marc Lombard Builder: MAG France Launched: 1999 Construction: Carbon-Nomex Type: Open 60 Beam: 5.56m Draft: 4.5 Displacement: 10 tonnes Movable ballast: Canting keel Board: Twin asymmetric Rig type: Fixed three speader Mast height 27.75m Upwind sail area: 240sqm Downwind sail area: 560sqm Number of sails: 12
Recent mods: New rig, new keel, new water ballast system, new electronics and computers, generator
Sponsors Hugo Boss
www.alexthomsonracing.com
www.hugoboss-sailing.com

* Alex Thomson set a new 24hr solo monohull World Speed Record in December 2003 covering 468.7nm at an average speed of 19.5 knots during the Défi Atlantique, in which he finished 3rd.
* At 25, Alex Thomson became the youngest skipper ever to win a round the world race – the Clipper Race 1998/99.
* In October 2005 Alex Thomson stepped forward as the only skipper to confirm that he will be racing „3 in 3“: 3 grueling round the worlds in as many years: the solo VELUX 5 Oceans in 2006, the inaugural two-handed Barcelona World Race 2007 and the blue riband Vendée Globe 2008.
100,000 miles, 3 years, 1 goal: be the first Briton to win the Vendée Globe.
www.alexthomsonracing.com
With over 120,000 nautical miles under his belt, Alex Thomson has completed four Fastnet races, winning the trophy for the top youngest skipper on his 3rd attempt, and is the current Round Britain and Ireland Record holder. This summer, Alex Thomson was seen coaching McLaren Mercedes F1 driver David Coulthard around the race track at the helm of the F1 Sailing Farr 65 ‚Hugo Boss‘ yacht in Skandia Cowes Week. More recently, Alex was heralded the ‚St. Bernard of the Seas‘ when he sailed to the aid of a young French female rower out on the Atlantic to supply her with emergency water and food rations during training on his Open 60. In a country awash with female sailing stars, Alex Thomson will cut a dash as Great Britain’s rising and most aspiring male solo talent.
media@alexthomsonracing.com

2007 – 2nd in the Rolex Fastnet Race (IMOCA Class) – Barcelona World Race Prologue
2004 Vendee Globe
2003 2nd Transat J.Vabre on SILL(Roland Jourdain)
3rd in the single-handed Défi Atlantique Transat
24-hours solo monohull record (468 nm)
2000 – Third in Europe1 Star,
1st class 0 Round Britain Race
1999 – 7th Transat J.Vabre on Gartmore (Josh Hall),
Winner of the Clipper Race, youngest skipper ever to win a RTW event.
1998 – 1st skipper Clipper Race