The 32-year-old from Gosport, on the west side of Portsmouth harbour, exploded like a firecracker over the Mount Olympus of singlehanded yacht racing, the Vend?Globe non-stop round the world, in 2004.
He had a distinctive sponsor in Hugo Boss; the television presenter Davina McCall, whose father, Andrew, has strong connections with both yacht racing and Portsmouth, was on hand to perform launching ceremonies; and David Coulthard, the Formula One driver, turned up both to lend support and race the boat. Behind the scenes, Thompson had the patronage of Sir Keith Mills, who was instrumental in the London Olympic Games bid.Off Thompson went at 100mph only to be felled by the crash and burn of a major gear failure, retreating wounded to Cape Town only a quarter of the way round. Apart from a dismasting it was, he says, his only failure, and it has changed his attitude.He still insists he would prefer to be described as a young turk rather than seasoned pro, and he does not feel any older than when he first came to prominence. But he quietly acknowledges that he went at what was his first big chance on the world stage a bit like a bull at a gate “Perhaps na? is the right word for it,” he says. He is in Bilbao waiting for the start in two weeks (22 October) of what is now the Velux Five Oceans Race.It started life as the BOC Singlehanded, became Around Alone and this time, in its toughest form, is a three-leg affair which first takes the fleet of mainly Open 60 yachts to Fremantle, then round Cape Horn and back up the Atlantic to Norfolk, Virginia, before the closing sprint back across to Bilbao.Thompson is one of a lead quartet in what is a gruelling challenge – the first leg is 13,500 miles, the second over 15,000.

He faces tough competition from fellow Briton Mike Golding and Switzerland’s Bernard Stamm.Then there is the wild card of a 67-year-old Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, determined to defy the ravages of anno domini and his lack of racing experience in the Open 60 yacht, renamed Saga Insurance, which is so different from the old-fashioned 31-foot Suhaili in which he became the first man to sail solo round the world non-stop in 1968-69.If Sir Robin is trapped by his old-salt image, then Thompson is bound to live up to an expensively cultivated sailing celebrity role, which he has to tone down behind the scenes. This is not a vital stepping stone for Thompson, who has already secured funding for a new boat to be built this winter under the supervision of Jason Carrington at Neville Hutton’s yard in Lymington, at the bottom of the New Forest.In a punishing schedule, Thompson is then due to do the double-handed, non-stop Barcelona Race around the world in 2007, when his partner will be the Australian navigator Andrew Cape, followed by the singlehanded non-stopper, the Vend?Globe, in 2008.When he says that finishing the Five Oceans is more of a priority than winning it, he is telling the truth. Five months of constant publicity for Hugo Boss is worth more than four weeks of pyrotechnics.But three times round the world in little more than 18 months is the stuff which turns blond curls to grey. Thompson will be on a fast-track collision course with Saga.He will also be using this first race to learn more about what he wants from the new boat and, from the Barcelona gig, more about the tactics of racing navigation and weather.He must love it? Well, no “I struggle with the thought of doing it,” he says. “You have to have your head straight and be in the right mindset. I mean, who wants to spend 50 days at sea alone? It is the little things that get you.

There are no shared experiences, no one to have a laugh with. I do like to have a laugh on a boat.”The party line takes over for a moment when he says, “When I do it, I really enjoy it”, but is quickly dropped when he adds, “It ends up being a bit like a job”. And the counterbalance to all the communications chores of blogging or recording interviews is “contact with my mates That’s the bit that keeps me sane. I phone up my mates”.So, are we to believe that Thompson is off on a sort of public relations cruise round the world? Forget it “The needle is most definitely there,” he says.. After a week in which takings at Europe’s elite yearling auction in the Tattersalls arena topped £60 million, and Sheikh Mohammed kept up his autumnal shopping spree with purchases totalling more than £7m, the other side of the investment coin was in evidence at Ascot yesterday. Caldra, the most progressive and impressive of a variety of smart two-year-olds on display, cost just 14,000 guineas in the Newmarket sale ring a year ago. While that sum may be only a little less than most people in this country earn in a year, in bloodstock terms it is no more than back-pocket change, given in this case by Norman Ormiston, who owns a builders’ providers and hardware business in Kells, Co Meath.

Caldra has proved the shrewdest of buys; his earnings are now nearly £175,000, and yesterday his upward mobility made him a Group Three winner.
The race he won by no fewer than five lengths, the Autumn Stakes, has a distinguished enough pedigree. Previous winners include the likes of Nashwan, Presenting, Dr Fong, Daliapour and Nayef, and last year, when it was run at Salisbury, Dylan Thomas managed to finish only second.However, for the very reason that he has progressed so markedly, Caldra will be unable to follow in their distinguished hoofprints He has proved a snip because of the snip. After he was beaten in his first two races, the decision was made to turn the colt into a gelding and the operation has, somewhat ironically, made a man of him.”We thought he was a real nice horse,” his trainer, Sylvester Kirk, said, “but he let us down the first two runs. His whole attitude to the job has changed, but there’s no fancy stuff for him now we’ve taken his credentials away.” Geldings are, of course, ineligible for Classics.Caldra, the 6-4 market leader, was never in danger of defeat once he took command under Declan McDonough going to the final furlong, with Kid Mambo and Moudez chasing vainly. It was the fourth success from seven outings for the son of Elnadim.”That’s it for this season,” added Kirk “We’ll map out a plan for next year over the winter.

He’s very talented, will strengthen and improve and now has a lovely attitude.”The Cornwallis Stakes is another contest that provides regular pointers to the future, in the shape of embryonic sprinters. The latest winner, Alzerra, gave an inkling of her class when she chased home the winter favourite for the 1,000 Guineas, Sander Camillo, at Newmarket in July and underlined it yesterday with a clear-cut success in the Group Three five-furlong dash. Confidently handled by Martin Dwyer, the filly, relishing the easy conditions, as a daughter of Pivotal should, swept into the lead inside the final furlong and beat Hoh Mike by nearly two lengths.”It was firm ground when she was second at Newmarket,” said Mick Channon, the trainer of Sheikh Ahmed’s home-bred, a well-supported 4-1 favourite, “and it did take her a while to get over it. But she bolted up at Ayr last month and came here in terrific form.”She is so laid-back and I’m sure she’ll stay further than this, and I’ll run her in one of the Guineas trials next spring to see if she does.