More than 200 people have signed up to attend a 20th anniversary reunion
Hundreds of people will be gathering at the London Boat Show 2013 this Saturday to celebrate sailing round the world ‘the wrong way’ 20 years ago.
The event is for skippers and crew from Chay Blyth’s 1992-93 British
Steel Challenge yacht race, plus the four subsequent Global Challenge races.
It is taking place at the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show on Saturday 19 January, with Sir Chay Blyth attending.
Race veterans are coming from as far away as Australia,
Hong Kong, New Zealand, USA and all across Europe.
It
was on Saturday 26 September 1992 that ten 67ft steel yachts set
off from Southampton for Rio de Janeiro, on the first 5,300-mile leg of the
epic 28,000-mile race. The only other stops for the amateur sailors were
Hobart, Tasmania, and Cape Town.
The Daily Mail
dubbed the event ‘The Mid-life Crisis Challenge’ and some in the yachting
establishment poured scorn on the project, saying it was foolhardy and
irresponsible to send greenhorns into the Southern Ocean west-about around Cape
Horn.
Chay called the event ‘the toughest yacht race ever – an extraordinary
adventure for ordinary people.’
It cost
£14,850 – or about 50p a mile – to sign up for the whole race – and there was a
long waiting list. There was a two-year training programme with some crews
enduring Force 10 winds in the English Channel in winter.
Most of the
sailors were trained by Pete Goss, later appointed one of the skippers. Goss
and Mike Golding are two of the skippers who will be absent from the reunion.
The former is currently kayaking around Hobart and Golding is racing up the
Atlantic on the final stretch of the solo, non-stopVendee Globe round the world
race.
The Boat
Show reunion includes plans for an auction of Global Challenge memorabilia, in
aid of Save the Children, plus screening of videos from the Challenge events, and
a buffet dinner.
Two ex-Global Challenge yachts, Challenger 3/Sarah, operated
by The Tall Ships Youth Trust, and Catzero, managed by the
sail training charity, CatZero, are also at the show on the marina berth M163/4.
The organiser
is sailing journalist Barry Pickthall who wrote the book ‘No Guts – No Glory’ on the event. Barry
says: ‘We have not managed to track down every crew member, so if you are still
in contact with your crew-mates, please tell them, we don’t want anyone
to miss out!’
Tickets for
the reunion are £20, including the buffet dinner, if you already have a boat
show ticket, or £30 including the boat show. The Reunion buffet dinner will take
place in the Platinum Suite level 3, (follow signs for the BMF/RYA Lounge) starting
at 7pm, when the Show closes, and will continue until 11pm.
To book, visit the show website, click on the Show Tickets – Buy Now! and select 19 January and
type in the promotional code BTG.
If you have a show ticket
already use the promotional code BTGE.
The deadline for booking is
Friday.
To find out more call Barry Pickthall on +44 (0)7768
395719 or email barry@pplmedia.com