URCHFONT-BASED sailor Jon Duffield is busy making the final preparations before he leaves on the most gruelling sailing race in the world, the 2004/05 Global Challenge.

Mr Duffield, 36, a systems engineer at Westinghouse Signals in Chippenham and a former pupil of Devizes School, is due to set sail aboard BG Spirit, one of 12 identical 72ft steel yachts undertaking the ten-month-long voyage around the world "the wrong way", against prevailing winds and currents.

It will be the culmination of a four-year process in which Mr Duffield, whose previous sailing experience was in a dinghy in Poole Harbour, applied to be considered as a member of the 17-strong crew.

After many workshops and seminars, training weekends and sailing weekends, the crew of the BG Spirit finally posted their intentions to go for top spot in the race when they came home in the lead during the qualifying race at the end of last month.

The yacht, sponsored by the natural gas company BG Group, dominated the field and came in ahead of the rest.

Mr Duffield said: "The crew is very competitive now and we really clicked in the qualifying race. We were first round Fastnet Rock and first around the Eddystone Light, then first across the line.

"We sailed straight through an oil industry regatta. They were delighted to see BG leading BT in the race.

"The only mishap we had was when, after the Fastnet Rock, we managed to shred our spinnaker. It was only a training spinnaker and, if it's going to happen, it's better that it happens on a training run. I wasn't on deck when it happened but the noise was seriously impressive."

He added: "The qualifying sail was a great opportunity to live, breathe and sail BG Spirit and really immerse ourselves in some true team bonding. We dealt with fires in the middle of the night, successfully treated a medical emergency, collided with a "tanker" and prepared to abandon ship.

"We rescued a man overboard and adjusted to living on freeze-dried food, all while racing the yacht as hard as we could.

"I am thrilled to be part of BG Group's entry in this race and am so proud of BG Spirit. I love the adrenaline rush, the camaraderie, the racing, the travelling and the friendships. The Global Challenge now seems very real and for the first time I have a true sense of what it will really be like!"

Mr Duffield will be bidding farewell to his colleagues at Westinghouse, who have supported his endeavours to the hilt, at the end of the month. Then it will be a desperate rush to rent out his house in Urchfont, sell his camper van and complete the packing of supplies that will have to be sent to depots in ports around their route so they can pick them up as they go.

In April Mr Duffield married his fiance, Elena Vorontsova, a Russian citizen, in St Clements Anglican Church in Prague, in the Czech Republic, where she works. The couple had met over the Internet.

Because of Mr Duffield's upcoming voyage and Miss Vorontsova's work as a producer with Radio Free Europe, they decided to postpone their honeymoon. Mr and Mrs Duffield will meet up in Buenos Aires in November and spend a few days together before he sets off with the rest of the crew on the next leg of the trip.