TV personality Nick Knowles launched Transglobe, the 12-month round-the-world voyage being undertaken by the Joint Services aboard three 67ft steel-hulled Challenge yachts which will set off from Portsmouth, on 11th July.

The yachts named Adventure, Challenger and Discoverer are crewed by Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force personnel representing all ranks, ages and gender, who are undertaking a sail training exercise that will circumnavigate the globe under the banner exercise Transglobe. There are 13 stages being sailed with crew changes on most legs, allowing over 500 service personnel, some of whom have recently returned from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, to experience ocean sailing.

Squadron Leader Neil Cottrell, in charge of co-ordinating the event said, “Confidence, stamina and determination, along with physical and mental toughness are key personal attributes that we seek to develop in everybody serving in the Armed Forces along with their ability to work effectively within a team. Transglobe will provide a once-in-a-lifetime challenge when all these individual and team attributes will be strengthened during long, sometimes arduous, ocean crossings and in the heat of competition in the 2009 Sydney-Hobart Race and in Antigua Race Week 2010 for the six racing crews.”