Global Challenge - The Start

On October 3rd 2004, a fleet of twelve 72 foot sailing yachts and their 17 strong teams, one featuring BBC Broadcast Meteorologist Philip Avery, left Portsmouth to take part in one of the most gruelling yacht races in the world, the Global Challenge.

The 2004/05 race is the fourth since it began in 1992. In that time it has evolved from ten to twelve teams. The teams must complete all seven legs if they are to have a chance of winning the Global Challenge. The first stop is Buenos Aires, the teams then sail onto Wellington, Sydney, Cape Town, Boston and La Rochelle, before returning back to Portsmouth in July 2005.

Phillip Avery's team
Philip's team, Samsung Ocean Racing, is skippered by Matt Riddell. They are quietly confident about their chances. Speaking to a positive Philip a few hours before the race, he said "Our team is an unknown quantity, at first we will take it easy and try and be competitive, as time goes by we will build and build, and hopefully we will be there at the end!".

The race day
Over 200,000 people came to see the teams off at the start. Preparations for the race began at Gunwharf Quays, a former Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth. Here family, friends and sailing fans came to say their goodbyes and cheer on the teams. HRH Princess Anne also honoured the occasion.The yachts left Gunwharf Quays to make their final preparations just before midday. The start point, Southsea Castle, is just a few miles down the coast from Gunwharf Quays.

At 2pm the race began. The crews immediately faced strong winds and heavy downpours, which would not have been easy for the them to deal with. It also meant very poor visibility for spectators. The weather soon eased making it clearer for the spectators to see the teams sail off into the distance.

The race weather
The other teams would be forgiven for thinking that Philip's team will have an advantage in having a trained Meteorologist forming part of the crew, as did his own team when the teams were announced! Philip's training did mean that he was well prepared for the start weather to be rough, with strong winds and heavy downpours.

Philip laughed "the real bonus is that we are heading south, meaning that we will be missing the wet weather that the UK will be receiving over next few days".