The Challenge will be made in daily trips of some 50 miles each, with the total voyage taking about a month to complete.

Accompanied by a support RIB and shore crew, the attempt will begin off the Royal Yacht Squadron next May heading in a westerly direction.

Geoff Holt grew up on the River Hamble and left school at 15 to join a charter yacht in the Mediterranean. By age 18 he had become one of the youngest charter skippers in the Caribbean and did this until his career was cut short in 1984 by a life changing accident which left him paralysed from the chest down.

Within years he was involved with disabled sailing and in 1995 became the inaugural chairman of RYA Sailability, a role he held for six years and continued as a Trustee or a total of 10 years.

In that time, RYA Sailability raised over £2m and established over 200 clubs and groups which currently give sailing opportunities to more than 16,000 disabled people each year. He remains one of the UK's leading figures in disabled sailing.

His Challenge next summer will be not only a feat of human endeavour but also a complicated logistical effort, as the schedule will be completely dependent on tides and weather. The practicalities of launching and recovering the dinghy plus the added difficulty of finding wheelchair accessible accommodation in remote areas will test the team to the limit.

Speaking of the Challenge, Geoff Holt said, 'The sailing will be physically challenging but the real obstacles to success are the logistics surrounding my care. In other words, how I actually arrive at the boat each day dressed and rested, how I find accessible accommodation, how I manage to eat and drink in the boat, how I prevent pressure sores from such long exposure to unconventional seating posture.

Compared to these problems, the sailing is going to be the easy part.'

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