The drive of a Scottish knight who knows all about the dangers of sailing round the world is behind the BT Global Challenge.

Without Chay Blyth, there would have been no race and 200 crew members would never have faced up to their once in a lifetime challenge.

Sir Chay, son of a Hawick railwayman, sailed into the record books in 1971 by being the first person to circumnavigate the world against the prevailing winds and currents - as the BT Global Challenge yachts have done - even though senior yachtsmen said it couldn't be done.

And this spirit of adventure led him in 1988 to found The Challenge Business, an organisation that promotes and runs events allowing ordinary people to experience the extraordinary.

The company Is based in Liskeard in Cornwall and has grown to employ 49 people, including 15 skippers. Managing director Chay is the figurehead but not just that. He is also the kind of boss who rolls his sleeves up and gets involved.

With his sales manager Paul Thompson, he tours the country seeking business sponsorship for the events his team is planning.

A sign of their enthusiasm and persuasion is that 14 major sponsors were found, one for each yacht, and 160 companies have signed up to the Challenge Business Club.

They come from a cross-section of the business world. The biggest involvement - just over 17 per cent - is from the world of IT; 7. 8 per cent are from the telecommunications industry. The total number of employees in business club companies is 1.3 million. Total turnover of businesses connected with the race is £171 billion.

Back in Cornwall, The Challenge Business team is responsible for planning the event. It takes around 20 people up to four years to prepare for a race such as the BT Global Challenge. It is already working on the world's toughest yacht race for the year 2000/1, this time with 72ft yachts, five feet longer than the current vessels, for crews of 18.

Chay's team recruits and trains crew volunteers, supervises the building of the yachts at DML in Plymouth, plots the route, negotiating the berths in each port of call, and arranges supplies. Once the race is under way, it has a panel of independent judges on hand to rule on infringements.

The Challenge Business' first big event was the British Steel Challenge in 1992/3 with 10 participating yachts and won by the yacht Nuclear Electric.

Client care manager Claire Fraser said: "The BT Global Challenge has been the biggest so far. It has been extremely successful."

Next on the agenda is the Atlantic Rowing Race in which more than 60 crews of two will row the Atlantic from Tenerife to Barbados, a 70-day endurance test which begins in October.