Sponsors

When I started this project, I bought Fear for £6000. I used the money I had saved up from my left-over maintenance loan from university. Between being at university during covid and spending 2 years in hospital meant I had 3 years left over rent money saved up. Seeing as I’m working as a sailing instructor and am never going to realistically earn above the threshold to pay it back, I decided to invest the money in a boat. That combination with the savings I had stored up from various jobs meant I calculated I had a total budget for this project of £10,000.

Buying Fear was a big chunk of the budget, and then I factored in £2000 for the rig, £1000 for berth up front and £1000 for any other initial repairs and adaptations. That I worked out would leave me with a boat that I could sail but that would realistically need more kit than I could afford. I would need to find money for a second set of sails, all electronics, in particular a robust autopilot, power generation as I was planning not to use my engine and the sailing kit I would need to wear to keep me warm and dry.

Simpson Marine have supported me with my sailing adventures for the past 6 years and so when I mentioned my plans for Fear they immediately came on board from the start providing me with discounts on the kit I needed to make initial updates and adaptions to Fear.

Initially with Fear I didn’t really publicly announce what I was planning, close friends and family knew but I hadn’t really advertised what I was hoping to do. I think I needed to prove to myself that the challenge was viable before I committed to it. It took two months before I had my first solo sail. I remember vividly when I got back to the berth, packed Fear up and was just sitting there looking around when I realized I was really going to attempt this. As exciting as that was it was also massively terrifying. I knew to get the boat from the point she was at that day, to the point of us being ready to go I needed a hell of a lot more investment than I had the cash for. As daunting as it was, I knew I had to somehow make this a reality.

I started out sending a flurry of emails to a variety of companies. Fully expecting a lot of no’s or for the companies not to even respond. What I wasn’t expecting was the amazing amount of support and interest in what I was doing.  In a short period of time, I went from having no sponsors, to having several major sponsors on board; Henri Lloyd, Raymarine, North Sails, Marlec Energy and Marlow Ropes.

Henri Lloyd is my technical clothing partner for the project. I had worked with them previously for the past 3 years so they were more than happy to come on board with another mad project and see where it could take me.

Raymarine were incredible. From my initial meeting where I explained what I was doing they immediately got behind the idea and wanted to back me to make it a reality. They have fitted Fear out with a complete set of kit. As well as providing additional support in fitting and setting up the kit.

The kit they provided is:

• Depth, speed and wind pack
• Autopilot with spare ram
• Radar
• Chart plotter and charts with back up chart plotter
• VHF
• AIS

North Sails were interested in the project from a sustainability perspective. Seeing as during my challenge I am totally reliant on wind power to get me round they were keen to come on board, to look at potentially using their recycled sail cloth for my sails. Due to the design requirement, my genoa will be made from their recycled sail cloth while my main will be Dacron sail cloth. They have also supported me with the R and D side of how to maximize downwind performance, in the end settling on goosewinging the genoa with a jib pole.

Marlec Energy came on board to help me meet my power requirements. Without the use of my engine to generate all my power I would be reliant on solar and wind power. Looking at what my power consumption was, they have helped me design a power generation system to match my needs.

Marlow Ropes have provided me with a completely new set of running rigging for Fear, meaning all the ropes will meet their requirements.

It feels strange even know that people are even remotely interested in what I’m trying to do and it feels even weirded that they are willing to back me to make it a reality. I struggle with doubting myself and there are moments where I fear that I’m not a good enough sailor to take on this challenge. On those days I try and remember all these big names wouldn’t be on board if they couldn’t see what I was doing was worth it and if they didn’t believe that I am capable of achieving this.