Gipsy Moth IV made her historic passage from Plymouth to Plymouth in 1966-7 via the three capes: the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn. Chichester was on a mission for the record books, stopping just once — in Sydney, Australia — in his bid to equal the time of the tea clippers.

Yachting Monthly’s plan is to cruise around the world over a 22-month period on the Trade Wind route, avoiding hurricanes in the Caribbean and cyclones in the Pacific. ‘A leisurely circumnavigation is more fitting for this old lady than a dash across lonely oceans,’ says Paul Gelder.

The proposed timetable would see the yacht leave Plymouth in June 2005, stopping in Bayona, Spain, Lisbon, Portugal and then on to Gibraltar, where she would join the Blue Water Round the World Cruising Rally 2005-7. Blue Water Rallies has generously waived entry fees and donated the costs of the Panama Canal and Suez Canal transits on the voyage.

Crossing the Atlantic in November, Gipsy Moth IV would arrive in Antigua for Christmas. After transiting the Panama Canal in February 2006 we would aim to be in Sydney (via the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Bora Bora and Tonga) around July. We would then rejoin the Blue Water Rally in Cairns for the passage to Darwin and westwards, via Kupang, West Timor, the Spice Islands, Bali, Singapore, Phuket (Christmas 2006), Sri Lanka, the Maldives — and home to Plymouth, via the Red Sea and the Med, in the summer of 2007.

Chichester, aged 65, sailed back in to Plymouth in May 1967 to a hero’s welcome with a quarter of a million people thronging the hoe. Watched by millions more on television he was later knighted by the Queen at Greenwich with Sir Francis Drake’s sword.

At the end of the 40th anniversary cruise, Gipsy Moth IV will go back to the UKSA at Cowes top be part of the training fleet and to carry out ‘experience’ voyages.