Next steps for Sam Goodchild

A small flaw in the Artemis Offshore Academy is the exit strategy of those who pass through its ranks. For it would be relatively pointless if after spending two years of intensive shorthanded Figaro or Mini training and racing its graduates simply fell off the grid, unable to continue their programs. At present Sam Goodchild, Nick Cherry and Henry Bomby, who all competed in la Solitaire this year, have all now left the Artemis Offshore Academy but are all intending to continue their Figaro campaigns in 2013 but lack the one vital ingredient that will make it happen: money. To this end, Sam Goodchild, for example, the original Artemis Offshore Academy scholarship winner in 2011, has set up Sam Goodchild Racing. “It is just a way of searching for sponsors and to make it my own independent campaign, not through Artemis,” he explains. “The aim of the Academy, as well as me, is to do it myself and to be on the start alongside an Artemis boats as opposed to being in an Artemis boat. I have had the opportunity for the last two years, so I can’t complain.” With the Figaro class and La Solitaire du Figaro offering little by way of media return in the UK, the chances of finding a company willing to stump up £50,000 or more for a year’s campaign are slight to non-existent. However Goodchild has been fortunate in teaming up with Mike Jaques, who’s boat he has previously raced on in the 3 Peaks Yacht Race. Jaques recently sold his business Exploration Logistics, a provider of medical and safety services to company, governments and institutions around the world. Generously Jaques has bought a Figaro for Goodchild to campaign. The new Figaro previously belonging to Portugese sailor Francisco Lobato and had some reasonable reasonable results, but significantly, Goodchild