Sponsor wanted for Steve White

As jaded old yachting hacks it is not often we get surprised, but one of the delights of the last Vendee Globe was the performance of British skipper Steve White. A classic ‘against all the odds’ tale, White, 36, father of four, had been hoping to do the Vendee Globe for ten years and, in a finest example of what can be achieved through sheer determination, remortgaged his house four times and took out a monster bank loan to buy his Open 60 (originally Josh Hall’s 2000 generation Gartmore), his resolve finally paying off when a secret backer stepped in to get him the last few yards to the Vendee Globe start line. Prior to the start of the Vendee Globe most of us had dismissed White as an also-ran, but had to reappraise rapidly when, as the majority of the fleet broke down around him, Toe In the Water soldiered on, White’s practical aptitude standing him in good stead. Ultimately in a boat that he was still working on on the day of his Vendee Globe departure, that he had had no training time in and that was one of the oldest and probably the slowest in the fleet, that by all rights should have not made it round, White successfully arrived back in Les Sables d’Olonne after 109 days, eighth of 11 finishers out of a starting field of 30.(Read more about it here) Upon his arrival back in Les Sables, White stayed the minimum among of time required by the race organisers, then took the boat back to Weymouth and within two days was back in Dorset welding up cars to help alleviate “the mess”. 18 months on and White has announced his next challenge – to attempt the singlehanded non-stop round the world record westabout against the prevailing winds, following