The Jester Challenge for single-handed yachts, under 30 feet, leaves Plymouth at 1200 BST on 3rd June 2006 bound for Newport RI.

In 1960 Blondie Hasler's 'amazing idea' was first 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. However, by 1968, he 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 more recent events have suggested that something similar is again due because the Royal Western Yacht Club's trans-Atlantic race was becoming unmanageable: swamped by professional organisations. The Club wisely hived off this professional element to Offshore Challenges and reverted to running a Corinthian event while maintaining the lower limit of 30 ft. This restriction had been introduced earlier, partly for administrative reasons but primarily because of evolving international, stability requirements which, although not banning the smaller vessels, made 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 (emphatically not of the RWYC's making) was a 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 reach Newport this year 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, ocean racers these 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.

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 entrance fees (Corinthian money, better spent on the vessel) and rules, other than those governing common sense and good seamanship. There is no organising committee: 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 Challengers will sail against each other on an individual basis and - in a parody of Blondie's views - we don't expect them to give a fig about level playing fields but we do expect them to 'behave like gentlemen' over numbers on board and the use of an engine. They will be happy, we trust, simply to reach the other side safely, take their own finishing times and then compare rigs, routes, equipment, clothing and diets.

Some suggest we insist 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 predominate as will, un-surprisingly, wind-vanes and with no regulations Challengers can carry - or not carry - what they like, based on personal experience: we rely on the maturity of the skippers. So far we have thirteen entries, six junk-rigged, and seem to be attracting the right type.

The Jester Challenge - a modern experiment in old-fashioned self-reliance, self-sufficiency and personal responsibility - encourages oceanic passages in small boats sailed by independent-minded yachtsmen, still able to exercise their individual freedoms at sea. It replaces no existing race, is complementary to the RWYC's OSTAR and, if it works, may spawn more 'challenges'. Meanwhile, the second Jester Challenge is planned for 2010, the 50th anniversary of the original.

Nigel Rowe writes:
Those of us who helped to organise and fund the building of the new Jester in the early 1990s, an exact copy of the original lost at sea during the 1988 OSTAR, did so to help keep alive the spirit of Jester and the ideals espoused by Blondie Hasler and then Mike Richey. We have also created the Jester Medal, to be awarded annually from 2006 by a committee of the Ocean Cruising Club for an outstanding contribution to the art of single-handed sailing. The creation of a new single-handed transatlantic race to further perpetuate these values was something we talked about when small boats were excluded from the traditional Plymouth-Newport single-handed races and the fact that it is now happening (due overwhelmingly to the efforts of Jester's new owner Trevor Leek and Blondie Hasler's biographer Ewen Southby-Tailyour) is a significant and welcome achievement.

Val Howells also writes:
We can all surely agree that over the past 50 years, the sport of sailing, at the top end, has embraced the image of Formula One, where technical development has required financial resources way beyond the scope of the private individual. And at first sight, this may seem to have been detrimental to the earlier icon, where rugged individuals spent their leisure time