THE ARMED Forces have formally taken over the last of four ocean-going yachts to replace their veteran Nicholson 55s.

The newer Challenger 67s were built for the 1997 BT Global Challenge race, and have since taken various corporate guises. They were acquired by the Services from Challenger Enterprises in Plymouth.

Since arriving at the Joint Services Adventure Training Centre (JSATC) they have been renamed Endeavour, Challenger, Discoverer and Adventure.

The four boats were bought to replace five ageing Nicholson 55s, which were considered to be no longer up to the rigours and harsh conditions met in the open ocean, and the Defence Procurement Agency agreed that the fleet needed to be updated.

JSASTC is responsible for providing sail training courses, offshore and ocean-going sailing opportunities for members of the Armed Forces, providing the challenging environment needed for Servicemen and women to develop their character and leadership qualities to the benefit of their career and to the Services as a whole.

Mrs Diana Davies, wife of Rear Admiral Peter Davies – the current Flag Officer Training and Recruitment (FOTR) – named the final yacht Adventure at a ceremony at JSASTC in Gosport.

The Nicholson 55 named Adventure was built for the Royal Navy to take part in the first Whitbread Round the World Race, which was then run by the Royal Navy Sailing Association.

It was decided that because of the strong links between the RNSA and Adventure that this Challenger 67 should be the only one to inherit a name of a decommissioned Nicholson.

The Nicholson 55s, now regarded as classic yachts, are familiar sights along the South Coast, and have been worked very hard during their Service lives with JSASTC – one estimate is that they have, on average, achieved some 300 years worth of sailing when compared to a privately-owned yacht.

Adventure will be heading off to the Channel Islands and France for a week in her first outing, but in April she will sail for St Petersburg to join in the celebrations for the city’s 300th birthday, returning to the UK at the end of June via Kiel and other Baltic ports.

Challenger, the first of the class, has already completed a circumnavigation of Norway, Sweden and Finland, using the inland waterways of Russia to reach the Baltic.

Discoverer has been to Gibraltar and back, and has since set off again and arrived in the Caribbean. She is due to return home in July after visiting New York and having raced to Hamburg.

Endeavour has been mainly involved in training skippers and crews in the Channel, but if all goes well, the groundwork done on this yacht will see two out of the four Challengers visiting both sides of the Atlantic within the next year, as far north as New York and St Petersburg and ranging south to Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town.