Mandevilles story
Written by Hannah Stodel | 01 November 2011
After what feels like years, our new boat, Mandeville is finally ready! Well I say finally ready, we’ve still got loads to do to get her near to racing standard, and as with all new high performance toys, they take a while to get used to!
Each boat we own has her own personality, and names to match how we feel about them...
Chimera was our Athens 2004 boat, named after the Greek mythological creature. I also found that it meant “foolish or impossible fantasy”, which is how we felt about the campaign at the time. We were the underdogs, and if I’m honest, thoroughly unprepared for the Games and the pressure that comes with them!
In 2007 we put our money where our mouths are and invested in a new boat for Beijing. Sadly she was a nightmare from start to finish with the build, and thus “Tantrum” was christened!
Having put so much time and emotional energy into getting this boat onto the water, and right first time, you can imagine the relief of finally getting her there! Looking for names for the 3rd boat was pretty tricky, and I put a lot of thought into it! This campaign is our 3rd together as a team, and has been dubbed “3rd time lucky”! We have been unlucky as a team, but we’ve also had our moments! We went into Beijing as the favorites to take home the gold, but it wasn’t meant to be. I thought long and hard about having a name that represented a “comeback” of sorts, but then, this campaign isn’t about a comeback. After Beijing, I wasn’t even sure that we were going to carry on and campaign for London 2012. It was a tough time, knowing that we had let so many people down, and also that we had let ourselves down, by underperforming that much.
The name that we’ve settled on is Mandeville. Now ok, I know that isn’t the most inspiring name about, but the history of the Paralympics, and the fact that this is a home games inspired me! So there you are, Mandeville is proudly sitting at home right now on her home waters of Weymouth.
We were lucky enough that one of our sponsors, Learning and Skills Solutions, who deliver Health and Safety training on the Olympic Park, managed to sort us out the launch party to end all launch parties! Driving the boat to the outside of the stadium was pretty inspirational, and it was an amazing place to give her a name and spray a little pink bubbly over her! The day was fun, and it gave us a chance to thank all of our key sponsors, and to meet some potential new ones!
Once again, a huge thank you to all the people that have been involved with the new boat, and have helped to give her life! There are too many to mention them all, but there are some that we simply couldn’t have done without: Brian Harding and all the guys at Carbon Index, without you, the whole project wouldn’t have got off the ground! PJ and everyone at Projects by Design, you guys really pulled everything together and helped get her out on time and under budget (just!)
Finally, a massive thank you to Sue, you might be my Mum, but you support the whole Team, and you’ve been behind us every step of the way, and for that we are all grateful!
Hopefully, she’s another step in the right direction towards that gold medal!
Hannah x