At the age of 47 in 2021, Alex Thomson retired from the IMOCA circuit following the end of the Hugo Boss sponsorship. He hasn’t ruled out returning to the Vendée Globe races in the future.
The original Hugo Boss Open 60 Racing Yacht that Scott Taylor and his Superyacht Painters faired and painted was discovered by two explorers, Cristian Donoso and Roger Rovira Rius in 2016. They were on a kayaking expedition in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park in Chile when they came across the famous yacht that had been abandoned by Alex Thomson in the Southern Ocean ten years earlier. The yacht had drifted more than 10,000 nautical miles across the Indian Ocean and Pacific ocean before being washed up on the Patagonian beach.
There have been 7 Hugo Boss Open 60 racing yachts in total.
Ecover 3 was officially named by HRH The Princess Royal in September 2007. She was traditionally christened with a bottle of Champagne broken on the bow at the 2007 Southampton Boat Show.
She was skippered by Mike Golding and her first race was the Transat Jacques Vabre in November 2007 following extensive sea trials. Mike is a world-famous race-winning yachtsman from Great Yarmouth, United Kingdom. He is one of the only ever yachtsmen to have sailed around the world in a racing yacht non-stop in both directions. He was the holder of the round the world westabout solo sailing record from 1994 until 2000.
Ecover 3 was built by Hawkes Marine in Wellington, New Zealand. She was designed by Owen Clarke, who has an impressive track record within the IMOCA Circuit.
Read Mike Golding's Yacht Racing testimonial here.
Hugo Boss Open 60 racing yacht has been skippered by Alex Thompson for 19 years. This includes 5 successive Vendée Globe races with two podium finishes. The British sailor has competed in the IMOCA circuit for 19 years, including five successive Vendée Globe races and two podium finishes, as well as numerous world records.
Mike Sanderson joined the Pindar Open 60 racing team as skipper in 2003 and competed in the 2004 Transat race from Plymouth, United Kingdom to Boston, United States of America. Mike Sanderson sailed Pindar single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean in the IMOCA 60 Monohulls race. he came third in the race just 5 hours behind the winner, Mike Golding, who had a winning time of 12 days 15 hours 18 min with Ecover 3.
