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The route of the race covers a distance of some 29,000 Nautical Miles (54,000km). It has changed to accommodate different ports of call, but in 2004/5 started from Portsmouth (UK) and stopped at Buenos Aires (ARG), Wellington (NZ), Sydney (AUS), Cape Town (SA), Boston (USA) and La Rochelle (FRA) before returning again to Portsmouth. The event claims the motto “The World’s Toughest Race” and is the ultimate sailing adventure for amateur sailors. The official charity for the races is Save The Children and the race patron is HRH The Princess Royal . BACKGROUND The seeds of the race were sown in Sir Chay Blyth’s previous sailing exploits. In 1970/71 he became the first person to sail alone round the world westabout in the yacht British Steel. The practicality of training people who had never sailed before was demonstrated during the 1973/74 Whitbread Race, when Blyth had raced Great Britain II with a crew from the Parachute Regiment. Subsequently he ran charters for paying crew. The design philosophy for the identical yachts used on the Global Challenge races was forged by Sir Chay Blyth’s longtime associate Andrew Roberts. It was his idea to start from the largest top-action production winch available, which would in turn dictate sail area, displacement and size. He also oversaw the build of the two fleets of steel cutters used in the four races to date to designs by David Thomas and Thanos Condylis (Challenge 67) and Rob Humphreys (Challenge 72). BRITISH STEEL CHALLENGE 1992/3 The first race started from Southampton in September 1992 with 10 identical 67ft boats sailed by a skipper and 13 crew. There were a number of serious rigging screw failures in the Southern Ocean and ''British Steel II '' was dismasted in mid-Southern Ocean, but managed to motorsail safely to Hobart under jury rig. She was re-rigged in time to rejoin the race for the next leg to Cape Town. The winner of the first race was John Chittenden and crew in ''Nuclear Electric ''. Chittenden went on to win the 2001 Yachtsman of the Year Award.
BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE 1996/7 An expanded fleet of 14 Challenge 67 yachts set out from Southampton in driving rain and gales. Again rigging problems struck in the Southern Ocean and ''Concert '' was dismasted. Skipper Chris Tibbs and crew made a jury rig and motorsailed to Wellington, New Zealand. ''Concert '' was re-rigged in time to start leg 3 from Wellington to Sydney and was 2nd on the Sydney to Cape Town leg. Yacht ''Pause to Remember'', skippered by Tom O'Connor, suffered a snapped boom half way between Sydney and Cape Town. There seemed no choice but to fly their trysail until crewmembers Graham Phelp and Matthew Reeves took on the challenge of trying to repair it by using a cut out section as a splint. Two days later a shortened boom emerged from below decks and was succesfully attached to the mast. Three weeks later and having suffered several storms with wind speeds in excess of 50 knots, Pause to Remember sailed into Cape Town, with boom still intact. This race featured an extra leg to Boston and a crew of disabled men and women took part on “Time & Tide”, the first to sail round the world. Mike Golding dominated, winning all six legs in ''Group 4 ''. Three skippers had graduated from being crew volunteers four years earlier: Andy Hindley; Mark Lodge; and Simon Walker.
BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE 2000/1 On 10 September, a new fleet of 72ft steel cutters made their debut in this race. The winner, Conrad Humphreys and crew on ''LG Flatron '', won four of the six legs. ''Quadstone '' collided heavily in a port and starboard incident with ''Save the Children '' in Wellington, NZ, and ''Quadstone '' retired from this leg. Skipper Alex Philips later resigned. Both boats had to be extensively repaired in New Zealand. For the first time the race was scored on points, with equal points for each leg, though combined elapsed times are shown here for comparison.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE 2004/5 The same fleet of 72ft yachts sailed again in the 2004 race, and Australian skipper Andy Forbes won in ''BG SPIRIT ''. Once again, though the overall safety record of the race was very good, medical emergencies did unfold, most notably onboard yachts 'Imagine It. Done.', 'Stelmar', and 'Save The Children'. In the case of 'Imagine It. Done.', only an extraordinary combined effort of several yachts within the fleet, the fantastic doctor onboard (Dr Roche), and the efforts of the Westpac Rescue team saved the life of John Masters.
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE CHALLENGE 72 ONE-DESIGN The current 12-strong race fleet of Challenge 72-footers was developed from the Challenge 67s and was specifically designed to be strong, safe and seaworthy in even the worst conditions and to be self-sufficient for long periods at sea, with enough fuel and water to take their crews safely to a distant port. The yachts were also designed to be relatively easy to sail and handled by crews who are not professional.
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