Neville Upton and The Listening Company team aboard a Jeanneau Sunfast 37 have won Black Group overall, writes Sue Pelling/CWL.

Upton raced in the same fleet last year but just missed out on a Black Group win, so not surprisingly he is delighted to have finally clinched the title. "I think it's a case of completing unfinished business," said an extremely happy Upton.

"It feels great to have won the Black Group this year. I feel there is real closure on it. We have had a great week, it's been really good fun and obviously to finish off winning it is pretty exhilarating."

As CEO of The Listening Company, a contact centre specialist which employs 4,000 people across the UK who work for large corporations and Government providing a variety of customer relationship services, Upton said they have eight core values, two of them are teamwork and winning. "We have to win for our clients every day so it's very important as a competitive advantage so we can give them competitive differentiation to be better.

"We get eight people on the boat, some of whom have never been on there before, so they are completely outside their comfort zone. You have to work together, it's no good simply just having someone great steering the boat, every little bit of the team has to work really well; it's perfect team-work environment and it is great way to get to know clients."