A SAILOR with just four years' experience has embarked on the challenge of a lifetime - a 3,000-mile voyage around the UK.

Retired businessman Ray Oliver, 67, expects to take more than a year to complete the marathon journey, which aims to raise at least £3,000 for charity.

The mental health organisation Rethink is among the good causes that will benefit from Ray's adventure.

In the 1980s his daughter Anne died at the age of 18 after a long battle with mental illness.

Ray is also raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care and the RNLI, whose services he hopes he will not need during his voyage.

He turned to sailing after a successful career in international marketing and undertook his first Royal Yachting Association (RYA) training course in the winter of 2004.

He said: "Despite having to get ice off the decks in the morning I enjoyed every moment and gained my competent crew sailing qualification.

"I set very high standards for myself and I knew I had a lot more to accomplish before I was competent to crew on a yacht, yet alone skipper one.

"I knew I'd need much more training and experience before this could be achieved."

In the past four years Ray has completed all the RYA courses and sailed more than 4,800 miles, including several cruises to France and the Channel Islands.

He lives in Wiltshire but his 31ft yacht Christine-Marie is based at Lymington Yacht Haven, where friends and relatives gathered to wave him off.

Ray and his crew will sail anti-clockwise around the UK, skirting the eastern side of Northern Ireland before heading for Land's End and home.

He added: "I have no fixed schedule or timetable other than to arrive in Scotland by the end of August before the weather deteriorates.

"My plan is to cruise round, taking time to visit ports and harbours. I want to enjoy the scenery and hopefully make new friends along the way."

His uncle, Ken Oliver, who lives in Barton-on-Sea, will be following Ray's progress as he makes his way around the coast.