Press release- 25th May (Northumberland Gazette, UK)
Firm support for sailing team
An Alnwick company is helping a Northumberland yachtsman float this year's campaign.
Hardy Advanced Composites is partnering ocean racing team Ross Hobson Racing. Ross, from Ponteland, is gearing up for the season after losing his yacht and almost his life in the mid-Atlantic last November. This time he is sailing with a crew - experienced catamaran sailor and son Peter Hobson, Martin Bowman, Dermot McGonigle and Stewart Walker
The team will take on a number of challenging inshore & nbsp races throughout the summer. He was due to start at Oban last week but pulled out due to bad weather. As current holder of the course record in 2000 with a time of 33 hours 23 minutes, Ross and his team are itching to get started
The campaign boat for 2007 is the Seb Schmit-designed Formula 28 built by Frenchman Charle Chapple, one of France's top boat builders. Already a previous European F28 championship winner, the boat may be just 28ft long but she carries a 50ft mast and 1,000sq ft of sail area. With her crew on the side racks, which were supplied by local Alnwick firm Hardy Advanced Composites, her beam is a massive 37ft - and she weighs in (minus the crew) at just 560kg
Hardy Advanced Composites is the technical, research and development and industrial arm of Hardy & Greys Ltd. Alnwick's world famous fishing tackle manufacturer. It was established in 1969 and manufactures carbon fibre and glass fibre tubes for industrial applications as well as military, aerospace, motorsport and marine sectors as well as manufacturing fishing rod blanks for the top end Hardy rod range.
The division employs 20 people, most of them originally from the Alnwick area and is possibly one of the town’s best kept secrets. Many people do not realise there is a company on their doorstep which supplies components for use on the international space station, anti-tank weapons, formula one motorsport and America’s Cup ocean racing yachts to name a few examples of their work.
To find out more visit their website at www.hardyadvancedcomposites.org.