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ACP sailing is a partnership formed by Chris BROWN, Peter HARDING and Jennie AUSTIN, previously owners of two of the most successful and consistently raced 40.7's.

Chris BROWN and Peter HARDING have campaigned the Beneteau 40.7 Fastwave II over the last 3 years, winning the RORC offshore championship Class 1 in 2001 & 2003 as well as a variety of inshore events. The new boat will again carry the Fastwave name, combined with that of fidessa, the leading equity-trading platform produced by royalblue financial plc, a global financial software company. royalblue are not new to the yacht racing world having previously sponsored 'royalblue addict', (owned by Jennie AUSTIN, Andrew FITTON and Ian HANDLEY) the leading inshore campaigned 40.7 in 2003 whose successful 2003 campaign included a second in IRC 3 at Cowes Week 2003, and culminated in her winning Burnham Week.



Together Fastwave II and royalblue addict have dominated the Beneteau fleet for the last three years, so it now seems fitting that Austin joins Brown and Harding to become the third partner in ACP Sailing.

Chris Aspinwall, CEO of royalblue financial plc comments "royalblue fidessa is the market leader in the world of global equity trading systems. We are confident that 'fidessa fastwave', under the skilful guidance of the fastwave team, will also be a leader in her field. It is our pleasure to support the new combined team in their move up to RORC class 0 racing."

"fidessa fastwave" is planned to be on the water during May 2004.

The 2004 focus is largely offshore, with the team setting their sights on a Class 0 RORC Championship win. A highlight of this programme will be the long distance August race across Biscay to Cascais.

In addition, ACP Sailing anticipate being involved in the 2004 Rolex Commodore's Cup, with skipper Chris Brown's experience of this event going back to the inaugural regatta in 1992. In the 2002 Commodore's Cup, ACP Sailing represented the Spanish Estrella de Galicia Sailing team, and this was repeated with their 2003 Admiral's Cup campaign.

ACP Sailing are currently evaluating new sail and electronics technologies, and plan to incorporate the latest digital wireless communications to send key information from the nav table into the eyes and ears of the crew on deck.


The first DK 46 on the water in the UK is as yet unbeaten in the Solent (over just 5 races) but is confidently passing Swan 45's, the Ker 11.3's and the Europrix boats alike, and is already talked about as the 'must have' boat for next season.

More information about ACP Sailing can be found on the team website at the address below.

royalblue made its name supplying a range of software applications, known collectively as fidessa, which are used by firms trading equities on stock exchanges around the world.

With over 20 years' experience as a leading supplier of global financial trading software, royalblue has expanded into the US, continental European, Japanese and Asian markets and now has over 60 stock exchange connections in place.

The company has offices in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong and has 500 staff dedicated to the support, development and implementation of fidessa, with development centres located in each major region. royalblue group plc has a full listing on the London Stock Exchange and in its 2002 figures posted increased revenues of £57m along with an increased operating profit of £8.2m.