London to Auckland

This blog has been setup to allow feedback and communications on the planned world record PWC (Personal Water Craft) ride from London to Sydney. The event was planned as a sequel to the Qantas Jet ski Around New Zealand of 2006 which Brad Burton and I did. For info on this ride and the book that was written about it see www.burglarbrothers.com .

We are looking for a major sponsor or sponsors to back the event and are looking for a support boat to accompany us on the ocean crossings. The boat needs to be capable of 25 knots continuously for 3,000km and be capable of lifting the machines out of the water and onto it’s deck. For a major sponsor the return would be huge with a minimum of 6 x 30 minute documentaries being filmed by Silverfox Television.

As of today we’ve been frustrated on the sponsorship front. It is difficult to get the proposal in front of the people who count at major corporations. We are convinced that the right sponsor or sponsors are out there somewhere and are looking for a sponsorship specialist to manage this side of things for us. There is huge value to a sponsor in terms of worldwide television coverage with a minimum guaranteed television audience of 400 million. If we get the six 30 minute documentaries onto Discovery or National Geographic Channel then those numbers will go up exponentially. There is no reason to think that this won’t happen as Silver Fox TV is known worldwide for their expertise in filming water sports.

Any suggestions or contacts for sponsorship would be welcome through this blog.

Brad has decided not to ride due to work commitments so Phil Briars will be the second rider. River Lamb has signed up as ground crew and one other ground crew has yet to be finalised.

We have yet to confirm whether we will be using Seadoos or perhaps Kawasakis or Yamahas for the ride. It will depend on who can offer the better package of machine and support. Seadoo are the front runners at the moment.

I was in Frankfurt last week and I took a walk across the Rhine to talk to the river police. I asked them what the speed limit is on the Rhine as I was concerned that it may restrict us on the ride up the Rhine and down the Danube to the Black Sea. The answer was…”This is Germany. There is no speed restriction. You can go a hundred miles an hour if you want”. You have to love that. However the news is not all good because there is a section of 50 locks to the north east of Frankfurt where the speed limit is 13km an hour between locks. Add that to the time for lock transits and you can see that there will be plenty of time for sight seeing. More next week.

Cheers

Jeremy