29th Sep 2009

From France to Mexico, Tim and Nicko will raise the Sail 4 Cancer flag

On October 18th 2009, Tim Wright and Nicko Brennan will leave St Nazaire in France to compete in a double-handed non-stop Transatlantic race to Yucatan in Mexico.

Entitled "La Solidaire du Chocolat", 50 sailors will be racing the 5,000 miles of the cocoa trade route on Class40 racing yachts.

From Nantes-St Nazaire on the French Atlantic coast to Progreso in the State of Yucatan (Mexico), the race course will take them across the Atlantic via several island gates - "Azores Archipelago, Saint Barts, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba" - before finally crossing the finish line around mid-November (hopefully!).

The ethos of the race is different to many others in that it combines highly competitive one design yacht racing with a strong charitable focus. The intention is to link every boat with a charity and to raise funds for that charity throughout the event.

'There are very close parallels between the ethos of La Solidaire du Chocolat and the excellent work that Sail 4 Cancer does, using sailing as a medium to raise money and improve cancer sufferers' quality of life either directly through sailing activities or grants for research. For these reasons together with the fact that cancer impacts everyone's lives in some way, including our own, we see it as the perfect charity for us to team up with.'

Palanad II

Each of the 25 boats competing will be fitted with trackers and regular position reports sent back to the web site.
Tim and Nicko are racing Palanad II (number 43) and have funded the campaign themselves, not through sponsorship.
All the money raised will go directly to Sail 4 Cancer.

So, follow their progress by logging on http://solidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/!
Thank you very much in advance for your support to them!

About the skippers...
This Anglo-Australian project was initiated at the end of 2008 with the intention of competing in a significant Transatlantic event, which is now targeted as the Solidaire du Chocolat.

Tim Wright

Nicko Brennan (33) from Sydney, Australia and Tim Wright (43) from the Isle of Wight, UK have both raced extensively offshore before first sailing together on a round the world race in 2004/5, Nicko as Navigator and Tim as Watch Leader.

	Nicko Brennan

Tim has skippered and crewed in numerous offshore as well as more recently racing with Nicko in his Mini 6.5 which he started to campaign in 2006 going on to come 5th in the 2007 mini transat. In July this year, Nicko also took the 4th position in the race Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables with Palanad II!

Palanad II is a well proven type of Class40 called an Akilaria. Nicko and Tim have been expertly supported in the preparation of the boat by Jack Bouttell, also from Australia.

Donation Form: La Solidaire du Chocolat - Tim and Nicko
Select Currency:	GBP - GB Pounds USD - US Dollars EUR - Euros AUD - Australian Dollars
Donation Amount:
Use Gift Aid and you can make your donation worth more. For every pound you give to us, we get an extra 28 pence from the Inland Revenue. So just tick here. It’s that simple.	I am a UK tax payer and pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax at least equal to the tax that can be reclaimed on my donation. I do not pay tax and/or this statement does not apply to me
Privacy: Your personal details will be required by RBS Worldpay but will not be stored by Sail 4 Cancer.	I wish to give my donation anonymously
Mailing List:	Add me to the Sail 4 Cancer mailing list
Please encourage the skippers with your message of support: (Optional - 160 chars max. Selected message will be displayed on the Sail 4 Cancer website.)
	RBS WorldPay is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. For help with your payment click: RBS WorldPay Help

For further information:

Email: click here
Web: www.sail4cancer.org
Tel: +44 (0)845 408 1849