Challenge Business suffered at the hands of Ellen's media machine

Challenge Business announced today that it was putting up for auction it's fleet of some for sale. Sir Chay Blyth's Challenge Business was never going to recover after Ellen Macarthur's company OC Events launched it's Barcelona World Race.

The whole fleet of some 5 x 67s David Thomas designed Challenge Yachts from 1992 to 1996 plus 12 x 72s Rob Humphreys designed Challenge Yachts from 2000 will be up for auction by Berthon Yachts. These legendary sailing yachts which have circumnavigated the globe against prevailing winds and currents and which have been an inspiration to the whole yachting community, so now is your chance to capture some sailing history.

The reality is harsh, but today the celebrity is media's king or queen in Ellen's case, and it is something that is the key to OC Event's business plan and it's publicity machine. OC Events looked very closely at exactly how much exposure traditional printed media in the UK and France that was received, and meticulously recording exactly how much other media outlets like Sky News, BBC, ITN, NBC as well as European TV coverage such as Canal+, Eurosport, M6 and mainstream French TF1 and France 2 Channels as well. In this way they attached as much value to Ellen's publicity as possible.

Sir Chay Blyth might be a great sailor, but he was no match for Ellen and her publicity machine. We wait with interest to see if Chay might be tempted out of retirement to race like Robin Knox-Johnson is in the Velux 5 Oceans

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