A HIGH-profile Hampshire offshore racing team has turned to sailing star Dame Ellen MacArthur in a bid to get its campaign back on track.

Southampton-based Artemis Ocean Racing have put Dame Ellen’s company Offshore Challenges in charge of managing its Open 60 campaign after a series of problems which culminated in skipper Jonny Malbon retiring from the Vendée Globe race.

For the past three years the campaign has been run by Lymington operation Blue Planet Ocean Racing headed up by yacht designer Simon Rogers who designed the brand new Artemis II for the Vendee Globe race.

But a succession of delays in construction meant that Malbon, from Cowes, only took delivery of the state-of-the-art yacht a few weeks of before the start of the 26,000-mile solo round the world race, which set of from Les Sables d’Olonne in November.

The 34-year-old headed out on his first competitive single-handed race having sailed just 4,000 miles on the new boat and encountered a stream of problems in the early stages of the race.

He was finally forced to retire when his mainsail suffered a serious delamination after 50 days of racing but the problems raised questions over the management of the campaign, which is estimated to have cost more than £4million.

A review was launched and the decision was taken to switch to Offshore Challenges, jointly owned by Dame Ellen and her business partner Mark Turner.

The company is regarded as one of the best in the business having managed Dame Ellen’s career as well as those of Nick Moloney, Sebastien Josse and formerly Sam Davies.

The OC group also owns and runs the Transat Race, which was sponsored by investment company Artemis in 2008 and the double-handed Barcelona World Race.

Artemis Investment Management’s chief executive officer Mark Tyndall said he remained committed to bringing success to the team.

He said: “Entering a highly competitive, top level sporting arena for the first time is always a challenge and the team have learnt a great deal from the past three years.

“We have an undiminished commitment to strive for success in the future and we believe that a partnership with Offshore Challenges will be a great way to leverage what has been started.

“We are greatly looking forward to building on this experience with Offshore Challenges and look forward to the year ahead.”

Artemis Ocean Racing is expected to compete in various events this year including the Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week, the Fastnet race, and the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre, starting in November.