Press releases:
April, 28th 2008
BT and BT Team Ellen launch the newly refitted BT Open 60 on April 29
The newly race-refitted and re-designed BT Open 60 boat will be christened by BT’s Francois Barrault and Dame Ellen MacArthur on April 29 in London on the River Thames. After sailing under Tower Bridge, the BT Open 60 will berth alongside the Royal Navy’s HMS President, where the official christening will take place. Media, customers and hosts are invited to tour the boat.
» Read our exclusive Q&A about the BT Open 60 race-refitting here.
The event kicks off the activation programme of BT Team Ellen sponsorship opportunities in 2008-09, as well as the start of the year’s racing campaign for Sébastien Josse and the BT Open 60. Sébastien will race the BT Open 60 in the forthcoming solo transatlantic race, The Artemis Transat, which starts from Plymouth on May11th and finishes in Boston. The Artemis Transat, founded in 1960, is the oldest solo race of its kind and one of the toughest challenges in racing.
After the Artemis Transat, Sébastien plans to compete in his second solo, non-stop round the world, Vendée Globe race this November. Ellen MacArthur said of BT Team Ellen’s Sébastien Josse, “He is a fantastic skipper with a huge amount of experience, and as a team we are as excited for him as he is to get the boat launched and ready for her first season of racing.”
» Learn more about The Artemis Transat here.
The April 29 launch of the BT Open 60 will also present an opportunity to celebrate BT’s successful sponsorship of BT Team Ellen. The project began in Paris in September of last year – a 3-year partnership with BT through to 2010. The project includes the BT Open 60 skippered by Sébastien Josse and Australian Nick Moloney, skipper of the BT Extreme 40.
Ellen said of the partnership, “We both share a combined passion for both the sport and the world around us, and I am convinced that the projects we will be working on together, both on and off the water, will help us to achieve our mutual objectives of not only being able to win races, but to promote the power of communications and technology to help create a better, more sustainable, world.”
Notes for Editors
About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services; local, national and international telecommunications services; higher-value broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2007, BT Group plc’s revenue was £20,223 million with profit before taxation of £2,484 million.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit
http://www.bt.com/aboutbt
About Ellen MacArthur
Ellen MacArthur hit the headlines in 2001 after single-handedly sailing around the world in the Vendée Globe race. At 18, she sailed single-handed round Britain and won the BT/YJA Young Sailor of the Year award for being the youngest person to pass her Yachtsmasters Offshore Qualification. In 1997, Ellen undertook the Mini Transat solo race from Brest in France to Martinique in the French Caribbean. With little money she went to France, bought a 21ft yacht, learned French and refitted the boat on site. She then sailed 2,700 miles across the Atlantic, completing in 33 days. This led to her first major sponsorship from Kingfisher plc when she raced a 50ft boat in the 1998 Route du Rhum transatlantic race. Ellen won in her class and finishing fifth overall in the monohulls.
Before becoming a household name in Britain, Ellen became a heroine in France, where she has been named 'La Jeune Espoire de la Voile' or ‘sailing's young hope’! She was awarded a DBE at Buckingham Palace by the Queen in 2005. Ellen holds five WSSRC (World Sailing Speed Racing Council) ratified speed records including the solo round the world record in a time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds set in 2005 onboard a 75ft trimaran. Ellen established the Ellen MacArthur Trust in 2003 that takes young people sailing to help them regain their confidence, on their way to recovery from cancer, leukemia and other serious illness.
For more information, visit
www.btteamellen.com
www.ellenmacarthur.com
www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org
About BT and Cisco: Working Together
BT and Cisco are proud to work together to sponsor BT Team Ellen.
BT is one of the world’s leading network service providers and Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. A shared vision for the future of Internet-based services has seen BT and Cisco working closely together since the 1980s.
In June 2003, BT and Cisco signed a joint initiative to combine Cisco's market-leading data networking, IP communications, and storage and security products with BT's in-depth expertise in deploying, managing and maintaining high-quality telephony and data networks – providing customers with an unmatched converged communications offering.
BT and Cisco also share an approach to corporate social responsibility, in particular, to sustainability. The two companies’ shared approach to sustainability and close commercial relationship led to Cisco joining BT as sponsors of the BT Team Ellen sailing team.
The BT and Cisco relationship remains stronger than ever today, with BT providing world-class Cisco technology backed up by market-leading integration services. And together, through their mutual understanding of complex network environments and solution provisioning, the relationship delivers superior capability, service and value for money for organisations large and small.