I'm raising £35,000 to ship our IMOCA back to Europe following my dismasting in the Vendee Globe race.

On 22 December 2024, almost halfway through my second Vendee Globe race. My mast snapped in two and four years of hard graft, training and racing came to an abrupt end. I was about as far away from my home port of Poole as I could get and stuck in the southern ocean, alone on our 60ft race boat with no mast.

Half way between Australia and Antartica, there is no one to help. I had to be the solution to my own problem, I had no choice but to rescue myself. So I built a makeshift mast, cut up my existing sails to fit and then slowly made the 800 miles to shore alone over 13 days. Including Christmas.

It turns out that was the easiest part of my rescue. Now I must ship the boat back to Europe and the contingency fund I hold is not enough to cover the associated costs of this recovery.

To date my campaign has been covered by commercial sponsorships but those contracts ended with the Vendee Globe race and so will not cover the costs of getting the team back on its feet again.

I am actively looking for new sponsors, I believe we have a lot to offer but signing will take time. So if the team has any chance of continuing I must raise the funds to keep us floating. Qualification for the next Vendee Globe race starts in May 2025 and if I am to have any chance of gaining a place i must start racing again by the summer.

In the meantime I cannot leave the boat in Australia for much longer without paying import duty and wracking up more bills. I want to ensure we pay all our bills before leaving Australia and I have to pay for shipping upfront.

I have already raised a significant amount towards shipping costs but currently the deficit stands at £35,000 which I need to raise in the next month to get on to a ship on the 1st March.

Any funds raised in excess of this amount will go towards installing a new mast so I can start qualification for the Vendee Globe race in 2028.

If you are inspired by my journey to the shore and want to help me and the team get back to racing then I would be grateful of your donation.

I hope a sponsor will step forward in the next months to join the next chapter of the Pip Hare Ocean Racing story. I am giving everything I can to getting back to the race track. We are down but the story is far from over.

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