Secrets of my success: Alex Thomson, sailing champion and racing team founder

What do you do?

I’m the founder and face of Alex Thomson Racing, my team based in Gosport on the Solent. My time is split between the technical operations like the design of the new boat, coming up with ideas for marketing and actually doing the sailing. Our focus is The Vendée Globe, often referred to as the Everest of sailing. It’s a round-the-world solo race, in which I came second last time. I train hard in the gym, as well as in meteorology, medical, media and maintenance — let alone the training that needs to be done to be able to sail my boat efficiently. It’s relentless.

What do you enjoy about it?

I love coming up with ideas to get people into the sport, with a goal of making sailing sexy. I sail with around 1000 people a year on my boat, acting as an ambassador for the sport. But there’s no “look at my big boat” when you’re miles out at sea for 80 days. Mother nature humbles you.

What do you find difficult?

Raising funds can be hard as, despite the attractive demographic for advertisers, it’s a niche sport. We have a few high-end sponsors, including Mercedes-Benz and Hugo Boss, which sponsors the team and the boat. It’s not like F1 where you stick your logo on a car and sit back. We work hard with the brands to engage people with the sport on social media. My area is not about technical sailing, it’s about human endeavour, about adventure, so we reach non-sailors as well. I’ve done a series of cool stunts with Hugo Boss — extreme sailing wearing suits, which were great. The hardest was a mast jump where I ran up the sail of a moving boat and dived off 15 metres up with only one attempt. Luckily, wearing a nice suit gives you confidence, and you need confidence to do that.

How is life at sea?

I’ve worked a lot on the mental side, with Ken Way who worked for Leicester City during their title-winning season. When you’re in the middle of an ocean going fast, it’s exhilarating but when you go below deck, it’s like being the co-pilot with Colin McRae, hurtling along with no lights in the driving rain, so I’ve taught myself not to be scared. I visualise I’m in the clouds looking down and there’s no danger, no icebergs, ahead. People often ask me about the loneliness but it’s not loneliness, it’s isolation, which I can deal with.

What was your biggest break?

I joined the Clipper Ventures team in 1997 as a general boatsman, a dogsbody refitting boats. At 24, I’d only been sailing three years and had ambitions to be a skipper. Clipper’s founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who sailed round the world in 1969, asked me to go on an exhibition trip to Greenland. He taught me to navigate using the stars, we got trapped in ice and anchored to icebergs. It was amazing. He then brought me on to the Clipper crew. I was the youngest by 10 years. I didn’t appreciate then what a gamble that was — if I’d hurt someone, that would have landed at his door. But I went on to win 13 of 16 races.

And setback?

There have been several near-death experiences. [Sailing star] Mike Golding plucked me from a liferaft 100 miles off South Africa in a rescue live on the news; two years ago, I capsized off Spain. But, as they say, strange things happen at sea. All of those experiences make you stronger, and therefore stronger as a team.

How do you run the team as a business?

I started it with Sir Keith Mills in 2003 and it took a long time to get sponsorship for it. Our mantra has always been to win in the water and return in the boardroom. We’ve tried hard to provide the return and, over the past four years, we have returned £226 million to our sponsors. You have to separate the results from the business. We deliver on our clients’ business objectives and then success in the water is the bonus.

How do you manage your work-life balance?

It’s about making a difficult situation bearable. My wife has the raw deal.

I was sailing before I had a family, so I’ve learned to stop faffing and get a lot more done. That’s good because, as an athlete, you need focus. My wife and I are very direct so if it’s ever not working, we’ll say so. We have certain rules, such as I’m never away for more than three weeks. I relax by spending time with the kids. My son is into kite-surfing, water-skiing — basically all water sports.