Teen uses mum's inheritance to race round world

Southampton student Thomas Roy, the youngest participant at 18-years-old will tackle the race in his gap year.

Amateur sailors from all walks of life will begin a test of endurance, skill and bravery when they begin The Clipper Round the World race this Sunday.

Eleven people from Hampshire are among those setting off from Portsmouth's Gunwharf Quays in a fleet of 10 identical yachts, which are led by a professional skipper and first mate.

The race takes place every two years and it takes 11 months to sail the 40,000 nautical miles - the equivalent to 46,000 miles (74,000km) on land.

The youngest participant is Southampton student Thomas Roy, who turned 18 just a few months ago. He said after losing his mum five years ago he wanted to put his inheritance "towards something meaningful."

The Clipper Race was founded in 1995 by Portsmouth's Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who was the first person to sail solo, non-stop around the world.

This is the 14th edition of the event. Sailing 24 hours a day up to 30 days at a time across some of the "world's unforgiving oceans", it is considered to be the toughest endurance race on water.

The Clipper 2025 Race gets under way on Sunday from Portsmouth

This year there are more than 500 Clipper Race crew members taking part from 37 different countries and about 40% have never sailed before.

Mr Roy explained that his mum sailed her whole life, and thought his taking part "would be something that she would be happy with too".

He said: "I have sailed for as long as I remember but I've not crossed an ocean, so that's an unknown... but that's the exciting bit."

Mr Roy will be joined by Steve Pearce, a former funeral director from Portsmouth who had never sailed before signing up to the Clipper Race.

He will be taking part in leg one and leg eight, which start and finish in his hometown of Portsmouth.

Amy Walshe, a quantity surveyor also from Portsmouth, said she saw the Race Finish celebrations last time and signed up for the challenge as she "couldn't resist the adventure".

The wooden pig mascot has been named Unk

A wooden pig mascot, from Reading will also be taking part in the race this year.

Unk was given to Kevin Woods and his team by Adrian Wakefield after they swapped the pig for some nail files on a scavenger hunt during a team building weekend in the town.

Mr Wakefield said: "I think it is brilliant that he is just about to embark on this adventure.

"I'm looking forward to seeing pictures from the team of Unk in all sorts of exotic locations."

He explained that Unk is about 10in (25cm) tall but he is laying on his back and came from either a boot sale or a charity shop.

Mr Woods said: "It was our skipper who said 'that is Unk' when she saw the pig and Unk is a very unusual name, it's not oink but Unk."

He explained that unk is the noise that a winch makes when it is under load.

"We take the rope and let it go very slowly and the winch goes unk," he said.

He added: "One of the guys on our team, from Canada, he has a tattoo of a pig on his foot because it is a lucky charm for sailors.

"In the old days, if anything happens to a pig they would float."