A few years ago if there had been a non stop two handed round the world race then we’d all have been riveted to the daily online news and position reports. The same used to be the case with the Whitbread, as it was then. It was our daily portion of gratuitous adventure. It always has been, and will continue to be, the case with the Vendee Globe because that race is still high adventure.

But when, after Francis Joyon’s incredible voyage, the Pen Duick organisation, veteran trans ocean events organisers announced ‘The Ultimate Challenge’, a no-holds-barred fully crewed round the world race in multihulls I admit that I had to stifle a yawn. A boredom, or maybe overdose, factor is creeping in. The Barcelona Race was borderline, as will be the Volvo Ocean Race, but then the latter is no longer intended as a spectacle for the masses, it is a business riding on the back of a yacht race. Indeed are there just too many extreme races or is my palate is getting very jaded. Are you turned off as well?