Pip Hare commits to next Vendée Globe and seeks new sponsor
Pip Hare at the start of the Vendée Globe. Image courtesy of Richard Langdon.
British sailor Pip Hare has announced her intention to compete in the next Vendée Globe in 2028, following a dismasting that ended her 2024 campaign.
Reflecting on the 2024 Vendée Globe race, Hare says: “Dismasting halfway through the race was a devastating way for the 2024 race to end. Not just for me, but also for my team and our supporters worldwide. But the thing about the sport of Ocean Racing, is that it leaves you no choice but to pick yourself up and move forwards. Just as I had to find a way to get back to the shore after dismasting; now we will find a way back to the racetrack in 2025.”
Hare was unhurt in the incident, which happened on Sunday, 15 December. The seasoned sailor had been racing in 15th position in the Vendée Globe when her boat Medallia took off on a wave. When it landed, Hare recalls, the mast broke into two pieces and fell down.
Over the past four years, Pip Hare Ocean Racing has grown from a new and inexperienced team to one of the top ten professional teams in Europe. Hare adds, “We have delivered impressive results and performance in the last Vendée Globe cycle, and that experience and drive remains in my heart and will make the next four years even more successful.”
The team’s title sponsorship with Medallia, a customer and employee experience management firm, concludes in May.
“Our partnership with Medallia enabled us to break ground and move through the ranks,” says Hare. “We are now a high-performing, highly experienced team, ready to shake up the top rankings of ocean racing. We are offering a great opportunity for a title sponsor to share the spoils of our hard work to date and make more noise in the future.”
Medallia senior vice president of marketing Tim Duranleau says: “We’ve loved working with Pip and her team and are proud to have been her title sponsor for so long. The team has also been incredibly proactive in coming to us with ideas on how to use the partnership to support our business goals, introduce us to new sectors, and engage with potential clients. We will continue to be fans of Pip and grateful for our partnership.”
Hare continues: “As Medallia proved, a title sponsorship is so much more than a name on a boat. Together we will make a difference, we will inspire, and we will demonstrate what it means to be a high-performing team and why human relationships are the currency that drive success.”
Despite retaining Medallia as her title sponsor for the 2024 campaign, Hare spoke to MIN in May 2024 about her ongoing funding woes for the Vendée Globe after both her team’s second-tier sponsors recused themselves due to ‘world economics’.
Hare says she remains focused on her goals and the opportunity to collaborate with a new sponsor. “It is now time for another sponsor to take over the mantle, to join us in driving performance, demonstrating the best of human and business values while sharing the incredible emotive racing calendar that will take us up to and through the next Vendée Globe race in 2028.”
Pip Hare became the eighth woman to complete the Vendée Globe, finishing in February 2021. A seasoned ocean racer, she has multiple races and two world firsts to her name.
“Part of what I love about this sport is just how far it pushes you—physically and mentally—to solve problems on your own, pick yourself up after knockdowns and understand just how resilient you are,” she says. “These are all key to successful businesses and are experiences that I can share with partners.”
Just over 400 miles northwest of the Cape Verde islands this morning (9 January 2025), Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) retains his 180-mile lead over second-place Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA), with a week remaining of the race.
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