Harris hopes for surge in British sailing interest as Ocean Race heads to Portsmouth

The 31-year-old is co-captaining Team Malizia in the 4,500-nautical mile multi-stage offshore race which began in Kiel this week and ends in Montenegro on September 20.

Harris is one of seven British sailors taking part and will have the chance to sail on home waters, with Portsmouth marking the end of the first leg on August 14 before the second leg begins from there three days later.

He moved to France to pursue his sailing dreams but hopes more British investors and commercial partners come on board to make a UK-based team a reality.

“It is really good to see that we are finding pathways into this top level offshore racing world,” Harris said.

“But we really need to see a British team on the start line. That is the next step and hopefully that will happen at some point in the future.

“We need to find some backing from the British market. We are really trying to encourage the British population to follow the sport, get behind what we are trying to do and try and win some of these big and famous races.

“If we can do that, hopefully we’ll get these British companies or partners to sponsor a team to go and try and win The Ocean Race.

“The other one is the Vendée Globe, the solo around the world race which was made quite famous in the UK by Ellen MacArthur about 20 years ago.

“We have never won that race so that would be a historic moment. If we could manage that, it would be massive for any company associated with it.”

Harris was part of the Malizia crew who finished third in The Ocean Race two years ago and is particularly excited to be heading on to British waters for this instalment.

“It is really cool to bring the boats to Portsmouth and show people what this race is about,” he said. “It is the top level and most exciting offshore racing that we have now.

“It will be a challenging race and we will have to adapt quickly. But we are going to some really cool places and finishing in Montenegro will be a whole new experience.”

Sustainability is one of the key aspects of The Ocean Race Europe and it is also a topic close to the heart of Harris, the holder of a degree in Oceanography.

“We do our own scientific research,” he said. “Wherever we are sailing, we have sensors on board collecting ocean data such as CO2 levels and temperature.

“We submit this to different scientific institutes we are partnered with, they can treat the data and put it into their models to see how they oceans are changing both naturally and due to human impact.

“Each time we do a race, we can see how things are changing and hopefully this can help us better understand our impact and see what we can do to improve and regenerate the oceans as well.

“It is basically free research - we don’t have to send out a research vessel, we can do it while we are racing and it doesn’t hinder us in any way at all.

“The Ocean Race are very involved in inspiring and educating the next generation about why our oceans are so important.

“We get to sail in very remote parts of the ocean and we really rely on our oceans so if we can show what is in them, what we experience while we are out there, we can use that as a tool to inspire and educate, as well as how we can make changes in our day to day life to help protect them.”

Seven international teams, seven stopovers, 4,500 nautical miles, racing for the ocean. The Ocean Race Europe comes to Portsmouth 14 - 17 August - the city where the race first began in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race