How many people can the boat carry?

Before he set off in November, there were fears that Francis Joyon would be unable to control his huge boat, named IDEC. With its three hulls slicing through the water and a massive rotating mast that reached 30 meters into the sky, the boat was built in 1986 for a crew of ten. It was feared that such a boat would be too powerful for one man in the rough seas of the Southern Ocean.

The latest Chinese player to join a Premiership team was the 18-year-old prodigy Dong Fangzhou, who was bought by Manchester United in 2004. Because of problems with red tape he does not yet have a work permit to play in Britain, so he is currently at a Belgian feeder club.