Babs Powell, 54, ex-Pans People dancer and actor Robert Powell's wife is a crew volunteer

Never afraid of a challenge, in 1973 he trained a crew of Paras to take part in the Whitbread Round the World race. The novice sailors were first across the finishing line.

The determined Scot has always taken a dim view of elitism in the yachting world and gets a kick out of seeing people from ordinary backgrounds leaning against the bars of some of the most exclusive yacht clubs in the world.

It was this vision of sailing for all, that spurred him to set up Challenge Business which organises the BT race and a host of other amateur and professional events.

Taste of adrenalin

His philosophy is that ordinary people can do extraordinary things - given the chance.

Sir Chay, 60, says simply: "I am the crew volunteers greatest fan."

Those taking part in the race range in age from 21 to 60. Some have sold their houses to pay the full �25,000 fee for their berth. Some have sailing experience, others very little. All will have made huge personal sacrifices to take part.

They all have a common denominator, they are wanting to have an adventure or a challenge

Sir Chay Blyth

Housewives, policemen, designers, engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, carpenters, bankers, even a dog trainer - all with the same dream linking them.

Sir Chay said: "They all seem to have a common denominator. They are wanting to have an adventure or a challenge.

"People of my generation and the older generation had to go into the army or the services and you'd get to travel abroad and you'd do exciting things and you'd be tested and taste adrenalin.

"Whereas nowadays the guy is sitting there with a machine, he's watching television for God knows how many hours a week.

"They don't really taste adrenalin and so they feel a bit sort of left out of it. They want to do something, they feel a bit frustrated about it."

Thirst for adventure

Sailing purists may look down on the BT Global Challenge as not in the same sailing league as events like the Whitbread, but Sir Chay believes they underestimate the nature of those taking part.

Sir Chay has no time for yachting snobbery

"I think it is becoming more serious in the eyes of the crew volunteers and the skipper. They see it very much as a race and they are going like hell to try and win each leg.

"Some people don't understand the intensity of the competition. The very nature of the people that are going on this voyage. They are all competitive people. They have been successful. They have had to raise the money, they have had to be very determined, they have had to have tenacity."

Some people don't understand the intensity of the competition - they are going like hell to win each leg

Sir Chay Blyth

He believes it is this everyman and everywoman spirit facing all that nature can throw at them which captures the public's imagination.

Sir Chay said: "The man in the street who cannot understand all the sailing talk. All they want to see is the boat sail through the water, going very fast.

"What you find with our volunteers when they get off is that they say exactly what they feel and what they think.

"They don't come up with some sort of fancy talk, laced with sailing terms. They say I was absolutely petrified. It frightened me to death.

"It's rather like young children who are totally uninhibited when you ask them questions - young bairns. They will just blurt out what they want to say and the man in the street understands that."

They don't come up with some sort of fancy talk, laced with sailing terms. They say I was absolutely petrified. It frightened me to death

Sir Chay Blyth

The yachting legend also dismisses media speculation that people find it hard to settle back into a mundane nine to five existence when they return from their adventure of a lifetime.

He says: "I don't think the race changes people outwardly but it changes them inwardly.

Crossing the threshold

"There is no evidence to suggest that when people come back that they go a bit peculiar or wobbly by not going back to their jobs and becoming hermits.

"They come back and they go back into mainstream life. But they may not go back into the same job.

"They may decide to hell with that, I am not rushing up and down to the City every week like I used to do. I am going to go out and do something else.

"We know people who used to be in the City who are now market gardeners. I think that they change inwardly because they become that more relaxed."

But it takes a certain sort of character to take on the challenge.

Sir Chay says: "A lot of people can't take that conscious decision to step over the threshold from thinking about doing something, to wanting to do something, to saying I will do it. These people can."