In July 2004 we finally signed the £3million sponsorship agreement with HSBC

and in September 2004 we announced our sponsor at the Diplomatic Club in Doha, Qatar.  The second agreement we had signed with QSI meant that HSBC would put their £3million into the project first followed by the Qatar payment

Kevin Smorthwaite the MD of HSBC in Qatar announced the sponsorship deal

and HH Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Thani unveiled the beautiful Oryx Quest 05 Trophy which had just been made by William Asprey.  HE Sheikh Jassim bin Thamer Al Thani who had signed the second sponsorhsip agreement was also present

alongside myself, Kevin Smorthwaite and the British Ambassador at the time, David McLennan

The skippers who had turned up to support the event were the enigmatic Luic Peyron, the Titan of the oceans Oliver de Kerusason, the energetic Cam Lewis and Tony Bullimore

In the background to this event, HSBC had already paid 50% of their sponsorship money.  Were building our website, APP had started filiming for the programmes, the education project was up and running and the marina was being sourced.

We had also started speaking with QSI about timing for their payment when the final HSBC installment was made in December 04.  Little did we know at that time that they probably had little intention of paying us.