30,000 nautical miles, 150 days at sea, 50-foot waves and winds over 70 miles per hour
conditions that make the Global Challenge truly the challenge of a lifetime.

On Sunday 3rd October 2004, twelve identical 72ft ocean racing yachts will set sail from Portsmouth and race head to head around the world. Each yacht will be crewed by seventeen ordinary men and women drawn from a variety of different backgrounds, ages and abilities. Led by a professional skipper, James Allen, we will all have one common objective, to achieve something extraordinary and to win the prestigious Princess Royal Trophy on our return.

The race will take us around the world the wrong way, against the prevailing winds and currents, stopping in Buenos Aires, Wellington, Sydney, Cape Town, Boston and La Rochelle before returning to Portsmouth in the UK to a heroes welcome some 10 months later, on 17th July 2005. Conditions will range from the unpredictable calms of the doldrums to the immense seas of the southern oceans, where the crew will encounter icebergs and gale force winds.