Gav Rees has returned home to Abergavenny after spending 11 months at sea as skipper of the 70ft yacht The London Business School. The father of two and his crew took second place in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, competing against nine other identical racers.
The team braved 70mph winds, 15-metre waves, sharks and medical emergencies during a voyage sometimes dubbed the toughest endurance challenge of its kind. Rees also acted as chief medical officer, engineer and meteorologist, all while getting no more than four hours' sleep a night and no showers for the near year-long trip.
A race for novice sailors
The Clipper Race is the only round-the-world race that admits people who have never sailed before. Rees's crew changed along the route and included people aged from 18 to 75. At any one time, 16 of a 55-person squad were on board, with some sailing the full 11 months and others for as little as a week. The longest leg at sea was five weeks before they hit land. Rees left his job with a pharmaceutical company to take part.
The race covered 45,000 nautical miles, equivalent to more than 50,000 land miles, crossing oceans from Europe to Africa, Australia, Asia and America, skirting the Southern Ocean near Antarctica and passing through near-tropical conditions around the Philippines.
Life on board
The vessel was built for speed, not comfort, with enough bunks for the crew to take turns sleeping. There was just one toilet without a seat for all 16 crew, and a bucket and sponge were used for washing. Swimming was banned as it could slow the boat and be risky. The crew mostly ate easy-to-store dried food like pasta, while fruit and vegetables bought on brief stops were kept in cold conditions. Christmas dinner was cooked on a four-ring hob in a galley kitchen the size of a phone box, complete with turkey, ham, roasties and gravy.
"Sleep is a privilege rather than a right and the toilet, flushed through with sea water by pump, can be an adventurous place to be on a boat being thrown around," said Gav. "We take the seat off because it could be dangerous. There was no shower, just a bucket and sponge and wet wipes."
Wildlife and magical moments
The crew saw pods of whales filling the Southern Ocean near Antarctica at sunset, a flock of 10 booby birds joining the vessel for a stretch, and dolphins and albatross as they headed through some of the most remote waters on the planet. Rees described the Southern Sea as cold and grey but a very special place, with pilot whales surfacing and blowing on a flat evening sea.
The crew also saw sharks and turtles, and in the Pacific, booby birds took up residence on the boat. They were not fed and stayed anyway, seemingly for a rest, unbothered by the sailors. Satellite Wi-Fi covered just one email and phone for the vessel, making it harder for Rees to keep track of Welsh rugby and World Cup football scores.
Medical emergency
The worst moment came when first mate Zoe Longley broke her leg in several places a week's voyage from Cape Town in October 2025, when a sail fell on her. With the main sail swung to one side in strong winds, the boat went backwards instead of forwards, and the crew spent an hour righting it while getting Longley to safety.
"There's no real text book for these things," admitted Rees. He and a vet on board decided to keep Longley comfortable and make for hospital in Cape Town rather than have her helicoptered off. Other boats could be contacted, but none nearby had better kit to help.
"We set up sleeping bags on the floor next to her bunk, immobilised her and gave her pain relief. She had dislocated her ankle and her tibia and fibia were fractured in three places but she only had paracetamol and ibuprofen," he said. "It was significant and not pleasant and the boat was precarious as the sails were on the wrong side leaning the wrong way."
Less than four months later, Longley was out of hospital and re-joined the boat near the Philippines in January 2026.
Race route and finish
The race started in August 2025 in Portsmouth and took in Spain, Uruguay, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Japan and South Korea, then the Caribbean, the USA, through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic to Oban in Scotland before returning to Portsmouth. Gav and his crew came second on July 25. Lou Boorman, from Haverfordwest, who now lives in Malta, skippered for rival Team Tongyeong.
The race is split into eight legs, with crew choosing to take on one, multiple or all eight of the legs.
Back on dry land
"People were selfless when conditions were awful and I was proud we had a really strong bond. We enjoyed each other's company and there was unity," said Gav. He added: "These boats are designed for racing and surf up and down the waves which can be quite fun. Our top speed was 30 knots."
Rees, a lifelong sailor and former officer cadet in the Royal Regiment of Wales, said it was his first Clipper Race. "It is a lot of responsibility and I wanted to bring everyone back safe. I have always had a passion for team work since being an officer cadet in the Royal Regiment of Wales," he said. He is now back home with wife Vicky and daughters Mollie, 16, and Bethan, 10. "I am taking a lie down in a darkened room for now," he joked.
