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A whole host of thorny problems, ranging from a rating rule that favoured small boats in deciding the overall winner, to the continued use of Cape Town as a stopover port, were addressed at the end of the 1985-86 Race, resulting in a series of changes for 1989 which inevitably proved controversial.

For a while, the organisers had been pressured by the British Government to abandon their ties with Cape Town following the Gleneagles Agreement of 1977 which, in support of the anti-apartheid movement, discouraged any sporting links with South Africa. Cape Town was duly removed from the race track and instead the 23 strong fleet headed to Punte del Este in Uruguay, which had proved a popular stopover in 1985.

Punta featured twice on the new route, as the start and finish of the Southern Ocean legs, and a further stopover in Fort Lauderdale in America was also added, extending the race by 5,000 nm to 32,000 nm.

The scrapping of the handicap system and introduction of a prize structure based on classes led to a loss of interest among the small boat sector, but a proliferation of maxis. In all there were 17 big boats on the start line, six of them brand new. The rest were a hotch potch of old and new, including 1985 winner, renamed Esprit de Liberte skippered by Eric Tabarly’s brother Patrick, plus a novelty entry that was to put the Whitbread Race on prime time television and on the front page of newspapers all around the world.

Tracy Edwards, the cook on Atlantic Privateer in 1985, had paid £115,000 for Pierre Fehlmann’s old 18 meter Disque d’Or III and put together an all-women crew to compete in the race, something that had never been done before.

There was a good deal of scepticism over her bid and she encountered many problems in landing a sponsorship deal. But an old connection with the King of Jordan provided her with a cash bonanza in the form of a last minute deal worth £800,000 from Royal Jordanian Airlines, guaranteeing enough money to complete the race. From the outset, the project was named Maiden Great Britain and Edwards showed great guile and nerve to raise the campaign’s profile including inviting the Duchess of York, who was then the wife of HRH Prince Andrew, to christen the boat. Despite the publicity, many doubted that Edwards’ crew would get round, let alone post any decent results, but she was to prove them wrong. Seriously wrong.

Blake was back for the fifth time, with a new ketch, named Steinlager 2 after one of his sponsor’s brews. His watchleader from the previous race, Grant Dalton, had also raised a campaign, securing funds from washing-machine makers Fisher & Paykel for a brand new maxi and hot-shot crew. This development added a compelling new dimension to the race since both Blake and Dalton were strongly tipped as likely winners. Stories of their bitter rivalry were legion though few had any foundation since, off the water, the pair were good friends, but no one else in the maxi fleet posed such a massive challenge to the title as did New Zealand’s golden boys.

British Olympic medallist Lawrie Smith, a crewmember on Drum in 1985, was the lucky beneficiary of a bumper budget from cigarette company Rothmans for a maxi campaign, but both the build and Smith’s appointment were completed late which gave precious little time for trials. Even before the race started, everyone knew that Rothmans was slower than her Kiwi counterparts.

Pierre Fehlmann also tapped into the tobacco market, his well-funded Merit maxi quickly gaining favour as one the favourites, even though it only had one mast, which went against the designer-driven vogue for two in this race.

Another new British maxi, built in Lymington, was British Defender, campaigned by a combined team of Royal Navy, Army and Airforce personnel, and sponsored by financial services company Satquote.