Crew Announcement

Saturday, 17 January 2004

This has to be one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the Global Challenge calendar, determining who's racing in each team and which skipper they have been assigned to - finally finding out who we'll be spending the next couple of years training, racing and living in very close comfort with!

All the crew volunteers were invited to the London Boatshow, at the ExCel exhibition centre in London's Docklands, and gathered in a private room for the announcement. Everyone seemed pretty anxious mingling with their old training mates, speculating which skipper they hoped (or hoped not) to get, and wishing each other the best of luck for the proceedings.

Sir Chay warmed up the crowd, joking about the crew volunteer who had given the names of 17 people he didn't want to race with, and therefore would now be competing single-handedly. Then it was time to introduce the skippers, each of whom appeared to be a hot favourite to win for one reason or another.

Finally, the team lists were flashed up onto the presentation screen for what seemed to be a very short time ... I didn't recognise any of the other names on my team at first, and quickly tried to locate my skipper, Andy Forbes. As everyone was frantically introducing themselves, and putting on their black coloured crew shirts, I realised that we were among one of the fortunate teams to have a yacht sponsor at this early stage. I was very surprised, and pleased, to discover that I would be racing as part of the BG Spirit team, on the yacht sponsored by BG Group.

Team BG Spirit

Team BG Spirit (credit: onEdition)

After having our team photograph taken we were whisked away to a reception with our sponsor, team project managers, skipper, and teammates, many of whom were BG employees from around the globe who have gone through a tough selection process to gain their legger places.

The party moved on to a local bar, where we joined up with some of the other crews, including several from the 2000-1 race, who were able to give us plenty of advice for this amazing adventure!

It feels wonderful to be part of such a big team now, especially with so many international people involved, and this also gives us greater focus and direction for the forthcoming months. We will be meeting up again soon in February for a team-building weekend, and I'm looking forward to getting to know my teammates much better over the next couple of years, and forge friendships that will last a lifetime!!

Team BG Spirit

Skipper
Andy Forbes (Sydney, Australia)

Core Crew
David Albury, Lisa White, Bob Child, James Davies, Jon Duffield, Trixie Gadd, Ben Gough, Robin Hyde, Marina Kniestedt, Bill Lane, Hamish Oliphant, Tony Procos, Tony Summers

Leggers
Mark Benians, Paul Coleman, Barry Dyer, Claire Goodland, Mike Jarvis, Hui Lan Koh, Sinead Lynch, John Morrow, Mark Setrem, Walter Simpson, Silvana Souto, Frank Chapman

Reserve Leggers
Richard Baker, Marco Barreto, Cosimo Corsini, Alexis Hodgson, Alisdair MacKenzie

Some crew members are excluded as they do not wish their details to be published at the present time.

Global Challenge Crew and Skippers

Sir Chay Blyth, Global Challenge Skippers and Crew
(credit: onEdition)

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Consolidation Training
May 2003

Development Training
April 2003

Continuation Training
November 2002

Challenge Regatta
July 2002

Continuation
Training
February 2002

Induction Training December 2001

Race Finish
June 2001