BT Global Challenge - Start Leg 1

The big day is Sunday, 10th September, and LG Flatron crew member Andy Magrath considers the serious matter of packing.

The BT Global Challenge starts on Sunday, 10th September, with the gun firing at five minutes past midday, to launch Chay Blyth's chosen ones into the biggest adventure of their lives. The Solent will once again be packed to wave goodbye to another fleet headed off on a round the world voyage.
The action starts at Fort Gilkicker in the eastern Solent, the fleet must then stay in a corridor a mile long and half a mile wide, all the way to Browndown buoy where they will round a BT Global Challenge yacht, followed by East Brambles buoy, both to port. From there they must head across to Prince Consort buoy off Cowes and start another corridor a mile long, the end of which is marked by the Jubilee Sailing Trust vessel Tenacious, lying in front of the Royal Yacht Squadron. After that, the fleet can break lanes and head west out of the Solent as fast as they can.

The race is often - in fact it's often intended to be - a life changing experiece. We wanted to get to the heart of that experience, and so we've asked two of the BT sailors to write for madforsailing.com during the race. They are both aboard LG Flatron, one of the favourites for overall honours. And both have a long sailing background.

Andy Magrath is a 26 year old from Staffordshire, who's been sailing since he was six years old, in dinghies until he was 18, before switching to offshore racing and cruising. He's already done a trans-Atlantic, in the ARC in 1999, along with 'suffering' the intensive training programme that the Challenge imposes on its sailors before they leave.

With a qualification and career as a pharmicist - an achievement he regards as his greatst to date (along with raising the fee to undertake this race) - Andy reckoned that becoming a professional sailor was impossible. But the Global Challenge gave him the opportunity to achieve a long held ambition to race around the world - and Cape Horn. And these guys are planning to race, as you'll see, the food preparation and toothbrush-sawing is straight out of the Whitbread text book ...

Andy Magrath, Friday, 8th September, 2000

"The race start is only two days away now and things are hotting up in the race village. The phrase, 'talk is cheap' springs to mind, and thankfully it is now down to the sailing - my role on the boat is watch leader, with duties on the bow and helm. Team LG Flatron have bonded well, we have been staying in our crew house in Hamble for the last five weeks, which has kept us away from the hustle and bustle of Ocean Village. Our skipper, Conrad Humphreys, is also quite pleased that it has kept us out of the pubs and clubs of the town!!

We have used the crew house as our base for getting the boat, our minds and bodies ready for the race. There has been ongoing fitness training, which has included circuits in the park and the 'Hamble run'. We have also been working with Euan Mcgrath from Southampton Institute to monitor our fittness levels. We did our final test on Wednesday - the buzz word is to stretch, stretch then stretch again!

Liz Hurst has coordinated the food packing and Legs 1 to 3 are ready. Packing the food has been an awsome task. Every day has been individually packed in heat sealed plastic bags. When on the boat, we just get the day's food out of the locker and away we go.

As well as getting the boat packed, we have had to get ourselves organised - which has not been easy as the boat always takes priority. On Wednesday, all of our crew kit for the next ten months was packed into our container ready to be freighted around the world. As you might expect, no-one was ready for the midday deadline and everyone was dashing around madly trying to get their stuff sorted out.

We are taking the bare minimum on the boat to save weight. Personally, I am taking no books, CD's etc - just clothing, we all take identical kit. I've also got a small diary, plus my toothbrush - cut in half, of course, to save weight! I'm definitely going to be ok when Conrad does an on-board kit inspection today, to make sure his boat is as light as possible!"