Here's to a spot of port hospitality

Yachts in the Global Challenge race will spend most of their time at sea or in dock; neither place is a magnet for spectators.

Why then would two international companies join together to sponsor a boat?

Because the sponsorship is aimed at networking, building client relationships and provides a damn good excuse for lots of corporate hospitality in ports around the world.

Billed as the world's toughest yacht race, the challenge involves 12 identical 21.9m yachts sailing the wrong way (against prevailing winds) around the world. Each yacht is skippered by a professional sailor with the rest of the 17-strong crew non-professionals.

Setting out from Portsmouth in England, crews stop in Buenos Aires, Wellington, Sydney, Cape Town, Boston and La Rochelle before returning to Portsmouth 10 months later.

The fleet is now in Wellington preparing for the next leg, which is about to begin.

Last year, global IT and technology company Unisys and information storage and management business EMC joined forces to co-brand one of the yachts in the race, Imagine It. Done.

Imagine it. Done has received more press than some competitors, largely because it was the vessel from which injured crewman John Masters was successfully airlifted on January 2.

While the sponsors realise trouble at sea is one of the bad-news risks, this story had a happy ending and gave their yacht extra headlines.

It is also the only yacht to be skippered by a woman: Dee Caffari.

This race marks the first time the two companies have co-operated in a branding initiative of this kind and representatives say they are happy with the way things have turned out.

Alan Smith, Unisys marketing director Australia/New Zealand, and Jordan Reizes, EMC marketing director Australia/New Zealand, see it as a way to leverage their global strategic partnership and, because the race spans the globe, to reach customers on a worldwide scale.

They also felt the sponsorship fitted their businesses because the two companies' core values fit with that of the race: competition, teamwork, inspiration, leadership, strategy and technical innovation.

Coy about disclosing the sponsorship's exact value, , the men say their companies' involvement spans not just business, but is also part of an internal initiative aiming to recognise top performers in other sectors such as sports and the community.

Imagine It. Done crew will speak to staff from both companies, telling them about the skills and work needed to compete successfully.