The number of entrants for the Race is limited to 30. The 18 provisionally registered and paid-up entrants have a remarkable range of backgrounds and sailing experience. Professional sailors and adventurers dominate but they also include an engineer, foreign exchange trader, hydrographer, pilot, tailor and university lecturer. All have considerable short – and single-handed sailing experience, one having logged five solo circumnavigations. 18 sailors from 13 countries: France (4), Britain (3), Australia (2), and one each from Estonia, Finland, Ireland, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Russia and USA. Their average age is 47. The youngest is 28; the oldest, 72.