As if sailing alone around the world wasn’t enough of a challenge in itself, people seem to be going to ever greater lengths to test their endurance. One such man is Royal Marines corporal Dominic Mee.

Earlier this year he teamed up with fellow Marine Tim Welford for a project called Pacific Odyssey. This was an attempt for them to become the first pair to row the North Pacific unsupported. Having seen off three typhoons, they were 900 miles from the finish in San Francisco when they narrowly escaped with their lives when their small rowing craft, appropriately namedCrackers, was hit and sunk by a 57ft fishing vessel. But undeterred by this experience, Dom will soon be announcing his next project – to sail single-handed and unsupported around the world via Antarctica and the North West Passage. And all this on a 28ft yacht.

The yacht, from the board of Nick Bailey, will feature a retractable keel and a rounded carbon hull designed to rise out of the ice. “She will be namedExecalibur,” explains Dom, “after the River Exe which runs through my home town.”

“The Pacific rowing expedition was really a test bed for the food and communications equipment,” he continues. “I had been planning this record attempt all along, and Pacific Odyssey was really a trial run.” It takes all sorts to make a go of round the world trips, it seems.

Dom will be launching his project from the Royal Navy stand at the London Boat Show 2002 with scale models ofExecalibur, and he will also be displaying the remains ofCrackers.