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Golding cleans up with Ecover
LONDON, England -- Ecover, the makers of ecological cleaning products, has extended its sponsorship of British solo yachtsman Mike Golding to include a new yacht for the 2004 Vendee Globe single-handed race. The Open 60 yacht is being built at Southern Ocean Marine in Tauranga, New Zealand, the same yard that built Graham Dalton's Hexagon that was dismasted recently off Cape Horn in the Around Alone circumnavigation race. Golding's yacht, named Ecover, will be launched in mid 2003 and then shipped to Europe to prepare for the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre in November 2003 as preparation for the Vendee Globe. The company has been sponsoring Golding for the past three years and the agreement has been extended until July 2005. There was no information available on the value of the sponsorship. The new Ecover looks very similar in hull shape to both British sailor Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher and Dalton's Hexagon. It features the twin wheel arrangement first seen on Hexagon, rather than the tiller steering on most Open 60's. Golding said the twin wheels make steering easier and allow for a bigger cockpit. "I'll be able to sit at the helm for many hours without getting half as tired as hanging on to the tiller," he said. "I'll also be able to reach all the controls, including the mainsheet and runners, something I can't do on the current boat." A former fire-fighter, Golding left the service to become a professional yachtsman in 1991, when he was selected to skipper Group 4 in Chay Blyth's British Steel Challenge, finishing 2nd overall. In 1993-94 Golding sailed non-stop around the world "the wrong way" against the prevailing winds and currents, beating Blyth's own record by 125 days and setting a new world circumnavigation record of 161 days making him the only person ever to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world in both directions.
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