The Aviva Challenge - History

"In the absence of stars, there was but one commodity we could develop, and that was team spirit. In every walk of life, a tightly grouped, determined, well trained team will so often overcome pure genius."

'Born to Win' by John Bertrand

Global Challenge 2004/5

The race began October 3rd 2004 from Portsmouth, UK.

Leg One took us to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It took us 34 days and we covered 6204 miles. We finished in 9th place, which put us in 8th place on the leader board after protests were heard. We won the BP Safety Prize and the Sony photograph prize for this leg.

We departed from Buenos Aires on the 28th November 2004 and headed south to round the famously, notorious Cape Horn. Spending Christmas and New Year in the wild Southern Ocean and dealing with an injured crewmember needing to be airlifted off the yacht, made it a dramatic leg. We retired from this leg in the race as the largest Southern Ocean rescue that New Zealand had coordinated took place on New Year’s Day. We arrived in Wellington, New Zealand on 4th January 2005 after sailing 6619 miles and 37 days at sea. This leg not only had a remarkable story of the rescue but also the great news that the crewmember was going to make a full recovery. We also won the BP Safety Prize for the second time.

After a well-earned rest in New Zealand we set off on 6th February for a quick sprint of 1374 miles taking only 9 days, to arrive in Sydney, Australia.

On the 27th February we left Sydney to head back into the depths of the Southern Ocean rounding the final two Great Capes of the world, Cape Leeuwin and Cape of Good Hope. We sailed 7402 miles and took 39 days before we arrived at Cape Town, South Africa. We led the leg for all but the last few miles and we arrived a disappointed fourth place. For this leg we not only won the coveted BP Safety Prize but also a media prize for a daily log written during the leg.

Leg five started on 1st May to Boston, North America. We sailed for 37 days and covered 7165 miles of some very close racing finishing in 7th place only seven minutes behind the yacht in 5th place.

From Boston we sailed to La Rochelle in France. We began this leg on June 19th and after sailing fast downwind for the majority of the 3105 miles, we arrived 16 days later on 5th July in 3rd place less than two hours behind the leader. Some fantastically close racing with the whole fleet all finishing within 1 day.

The short sprint home departed from France on 13th July and we sailed up the Solent to the finish line and the end of the circumnavigation on 16th July after a mere 553 miles.

A total of 32 422 miles were sailed around the Globe, spending a total of 175 days at sea. We collected a photographic prize, a media prize and three safety prizes together with a leg podium place prize and the overall safety prize for the race. The Global Challenge has given me these prizes together with some great memories and friends that can never be forgotten from an extraordinary year of my life.

Global Challenge 2004/5 Route