WEST COUNTRY sailor Pete Goss is to take to the high seas again in a gruelling solo ocean race.
The South East Cornwall sailor has partnered with Team Concise, winners of last year's Class 40 World Championship, to enter a new boat in the 3,500-mile Route du Rhum race which starts on October 31.
It will be the first time he has sailed solo since 1996.
The race is a major fixture on the sailing calendar, attracting a fleet of more than 60 boats.
It starts at St Malo and follows the French coast then out across the Atlantic for the Caribbean, finishing at Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe.
Pete said: "It has been a few years since Replica watches I have sailed such a fast, high-tech boat and the systems have come on leaps and bounds.
"Concise2 is fun, responsive and eager to please so I am looking forward to working up to, and competing in, the Route du Rhum.
"It's one of the 'greats' that I have always wanted to do.
"The competition will be tough, but I am going for a result and then looking forward to enjoying Guadeloupe.
"Despite all my miles at sea, I have never sailed in the Caribbean.
I just know I am going to love it."
Racing a Class 40 will be very different to Pete's last challenge, sailing Spirit of Mystery, a 37-foot wooden lugger, to Australia at an average speed of about four knots.
The 12,000-mile journey took him and his six fellow Cornish crew five months.
Replica watchesThe project recreated the journey Replica watches more than 150 years ago of seven Newlyn fishermen who left Cornwall aboard the Mystery in search of a better life in the Australian gold rush.
But the 48-year-old from St John, near Torpoint, is no stranger to sailing solo.
In 1996, he rescued Frenchman and fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli during a severe Southern Ocean storm in the Vendee Globe, for which he was awarded the MBE by the Queen and the Legion d'Honneur by the French President.
Asked if this race signals a return to a career as a solo ocean racer, Pete said: "I have never had a career, just a series of adventures and who knows where this one will lead.
"I never say never, so let's see where this takes us."
Pete is now looking for a title sponsor for his race.
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