NEWS
Nick Moloney skipper of the BT Extreme 40 will be competing in the third round of the iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series – a high-adrenalin mix of professional sailing on high-speed catamarans at five venues across Europe. The BT Extreme 40 crew enjoyed a podium finish at the first event in Switzerland and a hair-raising regatta in Hyères, France. BT are now 4th overall as they prepare for third round that will take place at the start of Skandia Cowes Week over 2nd – 4th August. A week of training with a coach should prepare them well for this regatta that will also see the America’s Cup teams of Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing meeting on the water for the first time since the last America’s Cup in 2007.
Ellen MacArthur then gets to take the helm from Tuesday, 3rd August as she will race the BT Extreme 40 in the daily race organised by the Skandia Cowes Week event organisers, Cowes Combined Clubs. In addition, Ellen will join Seb onboard the BT Open 60 in The Artemis Challenge race around the Isle of Wight. This 50-mile sprint around the island will see BT line up against the UK Open 60 contenders including Mike Golding (Ecover), Jonny Malbon (Artemis Ocean Racing), and Dee Caffari (Aviva). It is also for a great cause – the winning boat can donate £10,000 to a charity of their choice. Seb has nominated the Ellen MacArthur Trust and the French charity A chacun son Everest.
MAN WITH A MISSION… Australian yachtsman, Nick Moloney, has had quite a life! Still only 38 years of age, Nick has raced around our globe three times, in three different ways, and on the way set an outright round the world non-stop World Speed Sailing Record.
“Nick is an amazing man – he sets goals and achieves them. You plan, you work at it, you train and you do… That’s Nick Moloney.” John Bertrand, OAM
Nick Moloney has represented Australia several times throughout his career, in particular at the 1992 and 1995 America’s Cup. He has held over 10 individual World Speed Records including the coveted outright round the world record and the 24-hour speed record for the furthest distance travelled in a monohull yacht.
In 1998 Nick ended up with Guinness World Record as the first, and still is the only, person to windsurf non-stop and unassisted across the Bass Strait from mainland Australia to the Island State of Tasmania in a time of 22 hours 11 minutes.
Whatever the challenge, Nick puts his heart and soul into any given project and these include racing around the world three times in the three of the greatest disciplines:
1) With a crew and stopovers, in the Whitbread Round the World Race 1997-98 (now the Volvo Ocean Race).
2) Non-stop outright speed record around the world with a crew for the Jules Verne Trophy in 2002.
3) Non-stop solo round the world Vendée Globe race 2004-05 completed in two stages after total keel failure on day 80 of the 95 day voyage. Nick returned ten months later to Brazil and completed the solo circumnavigation in December 2005.
On home soil his sailing highlights include an outright win in the 1996 Sydney-Hobart race; winner of the Southern Cross Cup with Team Australia in 1995; and winner of the 1996 Kenwood Cup in Hawaii with Team Australia. In the year 2000, Nick assisted in the coaching of the paralympic 2.4mR squad for the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. These achievements have been recognised by the Australian Government and Nick was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for services to sport of sailing.
