In a nutshell .......

The Jester Challenge is a bi-annual event in which boats of under 30ft compete in a single-handed 'race' to Atlantic destinations and was first run to Newport, USA, in 2006.

In June 2008, the race was from Plymouth to the Azores. In May 2010, it leaves Plymouth for Rhode Island, America - and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first single-handed trans-Atlantic race 'invented' by Blondie Hasler.

In a bid to recapture the very essence of ocean voyaging, there are no entry fees, no judges, no committees, no scrutineering, and no real limits, with the exception that all boats taking part should be under 30ft loa. (Marginally bigger boats can take part by invitation from the other competitors.) If you feel you and your boat are up to it, you're welcome to join in.

The responsibility is totally on each skipper to set off fully prepared for the journey ahead.

The third Jester Challenge for single-handed yachts, under 30 feet, leaves Plymouth at 1300 BST on 23rd May 2010 with this one bound, for the second time, for Newport RI. No other single-handed, trans-Atlantic race is planned for this 50th anniversary year of Blondie Hasler's 'amazing idea'.

In 1960 the first such race was sailed by five yachts, four of whom were under 26 feet, navigation was 'traditional', self-steering was 'experimental' and all crossed the Atlantic in good order: the only time that this has occurred in fifty years. However, by 1968, Blondie was worried that the race's success contained the seeds of its own death, with excessive competitiveness one of the reasons cited. Fearing a demise he planned a Series Two that, if necessary, would begin in 1980 with. no sponsor nor organising club.ordinary yachtsmen going about their (legal) business.making an independent passage on (their) own responsibility.no rules.no entrance fees.treating (the skippers) as adults who can.take their own risks..

Series Two never occurred, but events suggested that something similar was due because the Royal Western Yacht Club's trans-Atlantic race (OSTAR) - swamped by professional organisations paying professional skippers - had become unmanageable. The Club wisely hived off this wholly commercial element to Offshore Challenges and reverted to running a Corinthian event; yet continued with the then recently-established lower limit of 30 ft. This restriction had been introduced partly for administrative reasons but primarily because of evolving international, stability requirements which, although not banning the smaller vessels from oceanic contests, made their compliance difficult. The result, intended or not, excluded seaworthy yachts from a race that had, at its very heart, the 25 foot Jester herself.

This nautical-nannying was a total nonsense and surprised owners of, for example, Twisters, Folkboats, Contessa 26s and even the diminutive Corribbee 21s. Experienced yachtsmen know that there is more to safety at sea than size and the righting-moment of a displacement hull: it is also a complicated matrix of human and physical factors. The arbiter of safety at sea is the sea itself, wrote Blondie, and it could be that a higher percentage of 'under 30 footers' will, once again, reach Newport in 2010 compared to a similar number of larger vessels in earlier single-handed races. The only class in OSTAR 05 with no retirements was the Eira class: the lowest IRC class with the smallest vessels.

Additionally, Jester Challenge skippers are likely to own their own vessels and will have invested significant savings in them - for some they are also a home - ensuring that, unlike sponsored, almost-expendable, modern ocean racers these Jester Challenge yachts - precious, personal possessions - will be cosseted and nurtured. With no public glory - nor sponsor - waiting at the finish, the highest standards of seamanship are most likely to be exercised: as they were in 2006 to Newport and in 2008 to the Azores.

The Jester Challenge fills a gap - satisfies a desire - and exists on the understanding that everyone has the right to sail across an ocean single-handed and 'in company' without submitting themselves to rules - other than those governing common sense and good seamanship - and extortionate entrance fees that, to a Corinthian, is money better spent on the vessel. The Jester Challenge has no organising committee while no one has a duty of care to the competitors other than the skippers to themselves, their dependants and other seafarers.

No skipper is likely to enlist on-shore navigational and meteorological help and there is no time limit. Without inspections the Jester Challengers will sail against each other on an individual basis and - in a parody of Blondie's views - are not expected to give a fig about level playing fields but are expected to 'behave like gentlemen' over numbers on board and the use of an engine. The skippers will be happy once again, I trust, simply to reach their destination side safely, take their own finishing times and then compare rigs, routes, equipment, clothing and diets.

In the early days some suggested we insisted on oil lamps, towed logs and sextants but while the Jester Challenge is for small vessels, some of whom may well have been built in pre-GPS days, there is nothing Luddite about it. Satellite navigation will continue to predominate as will, un-surprisingly, wind-vanes. With no regulations, Jester Challengers can carry - or not carry - what safety equipment they like, based on personal experience: we rely on the maturity of the skippers.

The Jester Challenge - a continuing experiment in old-fashioned self-reliance, self-sufficiency and personal responsibility - encourages oceanic passages in small boats sailed by independent yachtsmen, exercising their individual freedoms at sea. It replaces no existing race, remains complementary to the OSTAR and is increasing in popularity so fast that even those remaining, sceptical, yachting journalists have had to take note - probably much against their wishes - that the Jester Challenge in its two guises ( Newport and the Azores ) is here to stay.

The begrudgers might note, too, that the Jester Challenge continues to fill a gap demanded by traditional and proper seamen who would otherwise be denied the opportunity to pit their wits against both the oceans and other like-minded seafarers.

Prospective participants in the JC 2010 should send their intentions to the co-ordinator,
Ewen Southby-Tailyour: tailyour@hotmail.com.