At a press conference being held at their HQ in Gosport this morning, the organisers of the tri-services adventurous sail training Exercise TRANSGLOBE, the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC), have announced that the television personality NICK KNOWLES has signed up as an Ambassador to the 12-month round-the-world voyage and that Nick will officially start this epic adventure, that sees three 67ft steel-hulled Challenge yachts set off from Portsmouth, at 1300hrs on Saturday 11th July 2009.
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 an adventurous 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 the thrills, spills and chills of ocean sailing.
One of the UK’s best established and most versatile of presenters, Nick Knowles is always in great demand and he has a full schedule ranging across daytime, factual, factual entertainment and entertainment shows. The TRANSGLOBE Press Officer, Peta Stuart-Hunt, said that Nick’s agreement to support this venture is the greatest compliment he can pay to our armed forces, commenting:
“Whilst Nick very much regrets that he can’t extricate himself from his filming commitments for long enough to actually sail on one of the 13 stages of the TRANSGLOBE voyage, he is nonetheless delighted to lend his name as an Ambassador, promoting and fully supporting the initiative and we’re proud to have him on board with the Project.”
Squadron Leader Neil Cottrell, who heads up the Project Team co-ordinating TRANSGLOBE commented, “Having Nick associated with the TRANSGLOBE is a major PR coup for us, and we are hugely appreciative of his support, especially for giving up his valuable time to fire the start gun on 11th July.
“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 Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race and in Antigua Race Week 2010 for the six racing crews.”
Meanwhile, in a personal message, Nick said, “I would have loved to have sailed a leg and supported everyone taking part but the timing makes it impossible. But this is a really worthwhile venture and these guys and girls deserve all the support we can give them. Anything that helps to raise awareness of our courageous armed forces, who are putting their lives on the line to defend us all, has got to be worthwhile. Also, I’m only too happy to stand up alongside thousands of others to support the Charity Help for Heroes which is doing so much essential work in the area of mental and physical rehabilitation. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone at the start in July!”
Further details about Nick’s involvement and the start of Exercise TRANSGLOBE will be posted on the TRANSGLOBE website as plans are confirmed, so keep the site bookmarked at: www.exercisetransglobe.com
McMurdo joins forces with TRANSGLOBE
Also announced this morning is the news that McMurdo joins technical clothing supplier Gill and lifejacket supplier Crewsaver as an Official Partner and Patron of Exercise TRANSGLOBE. McMurdo is supplying 48 of the latest Fast Find personal locator beacons (PLBs), one to each crew member per yacht, per stage, to ensure they have the very best safety equipment available.
“We are thrilled with our association with such a worthy challenge”, commented McMurdo’s Sales and Marketing Director, Jeremy Harrison. “Exercise Transglobe is clearly a hugely valuable training programme for the forces.“ He added, “If a crew member carries a Fast Find in their pocket at all times, their chances of being located in an emergency situation are greatly increased. Equipping individuals with a Fast Find PLB takes personal safety to a new level.”
Carrying the Fast Find means that if a crew member gets into life threatening difficulty, either on board, or by falling overboard, simply activating the PLB will alert search and rescue authorities to their location, wherever they happen to be on the world’s oceans.