| Introduction |
| Thursday, 19 July 2007 | |
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But when things started to go horribly wrong in Qatar during the lead up to the Oryx Quest 2005 we were so embroiled in the project and so committed to making the event a success, it seemed impossible to do anything other keep forging ahead. Even with hindsight it is sometimes difficult to see what we would have done differently and what the outcome would have been.
When QSI reneged on the first agreement, maybe we should have resorted to speaking through solicitors rather than try and resurrect the deal. Easy to say that now but at the time we had, as a team, invested a fraught, exhausting year and over £200,000 of ours and investors funds into the event. Almost every penny I had earned that year had gone into keeping us all going. Some members of the team and I had flown to and from Qatar over 40 times, sometimes commuting twice a week. We didn’t know at the time what was behind the U-turn and we believed that we just had to prove our commitment to the event and to Qatar to get things on the right track again. We had been told by our Qatari solicitor that we just had to ‘stop thinking like westerners and start thinking like Qataris’, tear up the first agreement and renegotiate the deal and everything would be ok. When eventually, many months later we found out what was behind it, we realised that we had misjudged Qatar’s level of commitment to The Emir’s inspiring vision of becoming the Sports Capital of the World. However, by that time, HSBC had committed £3million to the event. To pull out then would have meant us reneging on our deal with the bank and the loss of their money. Quest International Sports Events at that time employed nearly 20 people. We were working with suppliers and consultants in the UK, France, Norway, Germany, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, Dubai, America, Australia and China. The best skippers and teams from all over the world had signed up to the event. We had believed we had the support of The Crown Prince HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. We had thought that Qatar was serious about being a leader of sports events in the Middle East. We had been led to believe that the Sheikhs supported the vision of the Emir. We were wrong on all counts. The non royal Qataris and in fact all the others doing all the hard work, supported and were inspired by the vision. But, sadly for the Emir, the Crown Prince and for us, they are not the ones paying the bills. It has been so difficult over the past few years not to scream and shout at the top of our lungs, what really happened during the Oryx Quest. Rumour control in the sailing world has been working overtime as usual and we have been silent. Why? Because we have always believed that The Emir, in his wisdom, would see the grave injustices perpetrated upon us, and intervene. I cannot and will not believe that we are not going to be paid. So, even whilst we continue with the slow and frustrating legal process we continue to believe in the ultimate honesty and integrity of the Emir and The Crown Prince. We are encouraged by the most recent message from His Highness expressing sympathy for our plight. However, it is now time to tell the full story. Let’s start with the Oryx Quest 05 itself. Let’s celebrate the success of the event and the amazing people who made it happen. Let’s leave till the end, the deals that didn’t work, payments that some people tried to get out of us, the agreements that were reneged on, and the loans I was forced to take out to make it happen. Let us celebrate the commitment, hard work and tenacity of the people who made it happen, before I record in depth and for posterity;
So, let us first take a look at the Oryx Quest through pictures and footage.
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