All participants, regardless of experience, will be fully trained to compete in the event.

"UK-Euro Group PLC is the first of a community of European businesses that will benefit from the business profiling and networking opportunities offered by our event, " said race director Michael Kay. "The environmentally friendly nature of their business fits the sport of sailing perfectly and in addition to that, they are, along with our title holders Oki Europe, a completely new partner introduced to the sport of sailing by the Oki European Challenge."

"The theme of the OKI European Challenge is man in harmony with the elements, which mirrors very accurately the way we have harnessed natural processes to create our world beating patented technology for air pollution control, " said Deane Thomas, managing director of UK Euro.

Secondly, and more importantly for the growth of the company, he added, the OKI European Challenge will allow us to showcase our system at several venues across Europe and allow us to use the heightened media attention that will follow this challenge to get our clean air, environmentally kind message across.