Audi Sponsors Colbert’s Bermuda Race Boat

Comedian Stephen Colbert joined Johan de Nysschen, president of  Audi of America, at the 2011 New York Auto Show today [Apr. 20] to announce the formation of “Team Audi” in the biennial 2011 Charleston Bermuda Race.

“If you’re going to win a race, you want to be in an Audi,” exclaimed Mr. Colbert, who plays a blowhard conservative TV pundit on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report.

“I tried bolting a mast and sail to an S5 cabriolet and took her for spin on the harbour, and the results were, well…moist!  So I decided if I couldn’t sail an Audi, I would ask them to sponsor my boat.”

Taking lead as “Morale Officer,” Mr. Colbert — a native of Charleston, South Carolina –  and crew will set sail on May 21 on a 65-foot ocean-racing yacht dubbed “The Audi.”

Mr. de Nysschen presented Mr. Colbert with a special life saver for his Bermuda voyage [below]. Modelled after Audi’s logo, Mr. Colbert said it would only rescue four out of his dozen-strong crew.

The spinnaker sail will feature the recognisable Audi rings.  This year will mark Mr. Colbert’s second time competing in the 777-mile racing event and his first year as Honorary Captain of the Fleet.

“Audi’s partnership with Stephen furthers our standing commitment to sports,” stated Mr. de Nysschen.  ”We’re proud to support winning teams in this arena and are expecting nothing less than greatness from Stephen and ‘Team Audi’.

“Not to put too much pressure on them, but we’re looking forward to watching the team cross the finish line first this time around.”

“Audi’s support in this race is the next best thing to putting a sail on my own Audi and sailing to victory,” Mr. Colbert stated.  ”‘The ‘Audi’ is a shoe-in to win!”

The Charleston Bermuda Race has been named one of the most challenging races in the Western hemisphere.

The biennial event kicks off in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina and the fleet’s arrival in Bermuda will be marked with a three-day celebration.

Mr. Colbert has publicly challenged Virgin entrepreneur and adventurer Sir Richard Branson to race him to Bermuda next month to determine who is “the greatest sailor in the world.”

The comedian recounted his luckless experience in the 2005 Charleston Bermuda Race during an appearance that year on David Letterman’s CBS talk show.

The vessel he was aboard came in dead last — limping across the finish line in Bermuda several days after the awards ceremony had been held at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

“There comes a time in every man’s life when he must ask himself, ‘What can I endure? Of what mettle am I made?’ This was not one of those times,” Mr. Colbert said recently about his first Bermuda race. “I thought this would be a booze cruise to Bermuda.

“Boat toilets…are floating Porta-Potties. Ours through an understandable oversight had not been emptied since the Carter administration. We tried opening a relief valve (provocatively called an ‘ocean cock;) — no go. It had to be pumped by hand. As a father of three, I was used to dealing with other people’s waste, so I volunteered, as did two other crew members… I now knew that I would not drown. I would die from amoebic dysentery.”

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