Cowes to Monte Carlo powerboat race to make a comeback The driving force behind its revival is Mike Lloyd, a retired racer. "That 1972 race has been talked about in the bars after races for as long as I can remember," he said. I got fascinated by it and started to do some digging on it. This is the 'granddaddy' of them all. It has always looked insurmountable, but they did it back then, so I thought I must be able to do it again. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world. The race will start off from the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes in the Isle of Wight on June 8 next year. Already, 47 teams, from 12 countries, have signed up. The boats must be between 25ft and 50ft in length, with a crew of at least two. Such vessels can reach top speeds of up to 100mph but will be racing more slowly to conserve fuel, ensuring they have enough to get to their destination. When conditions are favourable, the lead boats are expected to average around 50mph. Organisers expect that they will carry an average of 220 gallons of petrol or diesel per leg, but at high speeds the vessels consume about a gallon per mile. Some of the multi-million pound craft are being built for the event, but older boats are also being adapted to cope with the extreme conditions, including HTS, the winning boat from 1972, which has spent about 20 years in a museum. As impressive as the endurance of the boats and crews taking part, is likely to be the onshore operation supporting the race. Each entrant must have a backup team following on land, with a trailer capable of transporting their boat by road in case bad weather - 30mph winds creating 13ft waves or worse - leads to the cancellation of a leg. There are expected to be about 300 to 400 race followers shadowing the boats, along 3,300 miles of roads. A classic car rally is even planned to follow the route. The race itself will be organised by a team of 35 volunteers. Two aeroplanes have been chartered to convey them between starts, and a helicopter will also follow the race to film it. In the 1972 event only 10 of the 21 competitors made it to Monte Carlo. Among the dropouts were an all-female, aristocratic crew of Lady Arran and Lady Aitken, who were both keen powerboaters; and another boat driven by Viscount Slim and crewed by two other members of the SAS, called Who Dares. There are plans for the race to become a biennial event, staged in different parts of the globe, with future races between Venice and Monte Carlo, New York and Miami, Cowes and St Petersburg, and Abu Dhabi and Mumbai. The cost of staging the 2013 race is met by the entry fee: teams must pay £12 for every unit of their boat's horsepower. The average boat will have about 800hp - requiring a fee of £9,600. Sponsors are still being sought by the organisers as well as by competitors, including the only all-woman team, Rose Lores, 53, and Wenona Dancy, 49. The pair, who are looking for a third member to join their crew - Team Locamotion - are still finalising arrangements for a boat. Mrs Lores, a mother of two from Stubbington, Hampshire, works as a data manager for a financial company and has been racing for six years. She became involved in the sport when working for her previous company, Honda, which produces engines for boats. She has previously sold her home to help fund her racing career. "The challenge of this race is that it is so much bigger than anything I have ever done before," she said. I have to do this and nothing is going to stop me. We expect to get a lot of attention for being the only female team. Miss Dancy, from Poole, is a mother of four girls and works as a volunteer for a military charity. She started racing in 2004. The adrenalin from the race is what attracts me. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and to finish would be fantastic," she said. The revived race has been slightly shortened, to make it more manageable. The total mileage will be 2,760. The original event started in London, with the boats mustering outside the Houses of Parliament, before parading down the Thames to Dagenham, where Princess Margaret started the race from a launch. Competitors then included an all-female - and all-aristocrat - crew of Lady Arran and Lady Aitken, who were both keen powerboaters, and another boat driven by Viscount John Slim and crewed by two other members of the SAS, called Who Dares. Of those that failed to finish, one boat sank and another started to take on water and drifted for 19 hours until the crew managed to fix an engine to the outside of the hull, to get them to safety. Another competitor, a cabin cruiser called Nordic Rover - the slowest entrant - consistently finished so late at night that for several days, she was thought to have retired from the race. However, she did manage to reach Monte Carlo - in last place. Another racer, Oskar Trost, continued even after breaking three ribs when his boat was dropped from a crane into the water. The German, who was crewed by his wife, Ute, went on to win two stages and finish third overall. The race was eventually won by HTS, and its crew of Eddie Chater, Jimmy Brooker and skipper Mike Bellamy. He said the competitors had to contend with varying conditions, from fog to 10ft waves. His boat suffered engine failure on one leg but was able to reach port where it could be fixed. On another leg, in southern France, a longer route than expected saw them running out of fuel so they sped up a river until they found a "tabac" shop, which in those days, sold heating oil for homes. The crew filled up 44 gallons and were able to get to the finish line without surrendering their overall lead. The crew won eight of the 14 stages at an average speed of 40mph. They received the trophy from Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and his wife HRH Princess Grace of Monaco - although the cup was stolen three weeks later during a burglary. Mr Bellamy, 77, is due to be at the finish next year, although he will be travelling by land this time. It is fantastic to see the race back. There is nothing like it," he said. Of course, this time it is from Cowes, not London, which is 200 miles shorter. So this old fogey is still the winner of the longest ever power boat race in the world.