Rupert Holmes has some 85,000 miles of offshore cruising and racing experience in waters ranging from the Norwegian fjords to the Southern Ocean, plus the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

As well as racing two-handed across the Atlantic, around Britain and Ireland, and to the Azores and back, he has cruised from New Zealand to South America and the Falklands, via Cape Horn.

He lives on the west coast of France, continues to sail extensively in north European and Atlantic waters and also has a 30ft cruising yacht in the Aegean.