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More than half the skippers who entered the 1997-98 race had never competed in the Whitbread before which may sound like a throwback to the early Corinthian days, but was in fact a reflection of how badly the top professionals of the day wanted the title on their CV.

Among them was a Californian fellow called Paul Cayard, who was well-known in America’s Cup circles, but was unproven offshore. So no one rated him very seriously but as it turned out, Cayard, like Connie van Riechtschoten and Sir Peter Blake before him, was to have a profound influence on the evolution of race, raising professional standards to levels previously unseen.

There were a number of changes to the event, which Cayard and all ten syndicates were able to use as a platform to secure contracts, sponsorship funds and media coverage. These included a change of name. The Whitbread Race became the Whitbread Race for the Volvo trophy after the Swedish automotive giant provided additional support.

The number of stopover ports increased from seven to nine to increase both public awareness of the event and the media coverage, which like most events was key to its success. The additions of Sydney, Australia; São Sebastião, Brazil; Baltimore/Annapolis in the United States; and La Rochelle, France provided the race with brand new markets.

There was another dramatic development which enabled round the clock tracking by race followers. Positions, news items, emails from the boats and stacks of background information were all posted on a website, guaranteeing a massive new audience who could live the race as it happened for the first time.

Viewers were treated to a spectacular start. Thousands of support boats – and a dramatic collision between Toshiba and a press boat - blue skies and a colourful action-packed spinnaker start.

Local favourite Lawrie Smith was back with a well-funded campaign backed by cigarette company Silk Cut and once again he was pitted against some old foes including the hugely competitive Kiwi duo, Chris Dickson in Toshiba and Grant Dalton, who was setting out on his fifth ride in the Whitbread, this time on Merit Cup.

Gunnar Krantz skipper of Swedish Match and Knut Frostad skipper of Innovation Kvaerner had both been with Smith on Intrum Justitia in the last race while the other five skippers had no experience of the race, including Christine Guillou, French skipper of EF Education the all-girls sister ship to Cayard’s EF Language.