As his fiery mane was almost blasted off his face on the high seas this week Sean Conway cut quite the piratical figure but looks can be deceptive.

With conditions that would have driven even those among the rest of us with a fondness for messing about on boats indoors – they saw only one other sail boat on the English Channel that day – but were euphemistically described as ‘gnarley’ by his boat’s skipper, Phil Sharp, the adventurer who has become known as ‘the Beard’ was the novice aboard.

This was their initial preparation for a trip most would find daunting but will represent relative luxury for Conway who, along with Sharp and the C-40 class boat’s owner, Alex Alley, is seeking in the next few days to set a new record when negotiating a route from Land’s End to John o’Groats.

The voyage itself is not an end in itself since the 60 hours or so they expect to be at sea will be a true drop in the ocean compared with what is to come marking, as it does, the beginning in earnest of Sharp’s preparations not only to contest the Vendee Globe solo race, but to do so on a boat which will generate zero emissions in seeking to break new ground for sustainable energy.

Conway’s involvement is on account of his association with length of Britain records since he alone has swum this course and, apparently unsatisfied by the challenge of walking the route seven years ago, he has also run and cycled it.

“Why not get another non-motorised way of doing it under my belt, only this time a lot faster,” he said, with relish, albeit he knows it will be far from plain sailing.

“Phil is a great skipper but it’s going to take me a few days to get into the swing of things. I get seasick a lot so that’s something I’m going to have to just deal with.

“This is by far the scariest of the four Land’s End to John o’Groats adventures I’ve done. Sixty hours straight with not much sleep during winter with 16 hours of darkness each day. If the waves pick up I’m going to be well outside my comfort zone.

“Seasickness, lack of sleep, going to the toilet in a bucket... So many things make this challenge really tough.”

However he is in no doubt that it will be worth it.

“I live on a WW2 gunboat but never really learned how to sail properly,” he said.

“If there is one person to learn how to master the ocean from, its Phil. I’m looking forward to that.”

Clearly he can be little more than a passenger this time around, potentially more hindrance than help in technical terms, however Sharp believes that as well as enjoying the company he will be deprived of on his round-the-world bid, he can benefit from taking Conway along for the ride.

“It will be a pleasure and inspiration to have these guys with me,” he said of Conway and Alley.

“Most of the racing I do is solo so I have no technical worries about having Sean aboard even if he is a non-sailor. He is as hard as nails and I am sure I can enhance my own endurance capacity learning from a Zen master.”

That may be tested to the full because Sharp is expecting the Scottish leg of the trip to provide a true taste of some of the fiercer conditions he will encounter in the Vendee Globe race, while he believes that by setting a record they may create a new route with the potential for future races, record attempts and individuals to follow.

“We will be setting a benchmark which I think many will go on to challenge, simply because it is a great, mainly downwind, fast route,” said Sharp.

“However this will also be part of the training and conditioning for the Southern Ocean which is where I aim to be at Christmas next year during the Vendée Globe. Sailing in mid-December on Scotland’s most northerly coast, along the Pentland Firth and around Cape Wrath, are some of the most hostile waters in Europe, certainly as cold and malicious at times as the Southern Ocean.”

With Bruichladdich Distillery providing sponsorship and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (H&IE) also backing this bid, the hope is also to demonstrate that the hospitable nature of the onland welcome received at Britain’s most northerly point will offer a stark contrast to the discomfort they will encounter at sea and one member of the team behind this project has a particular interest in ensuring that is so.

While it is very much a Jersey-oriented operation Glasgow-based Gordon Ritchie is the partnership manager, principally responsible for raising the funding and he is excited by the prospect of a side benefit of his efforts being to provide sailing in his native land with a boost.

“John o’Groats is the natural finishing point for the record,” he observed.

“It's a course which can be known and understood by anyone, even those who know nothing of sailing and/or geography, a great bite sized downwind route which does not require the same weather window as Round Britain and Ireland and a high percentage of it is in Scottish water.

“I guess 70 per cent is in Scottish waters, so this may draw the focus to more remote, less popular areas for sailing and I think this opens a record route which many will take on all different sailing craft.”

What gives the route its unique selling point for such a challenge is that a Scottish port is the destination, not least because of the zero emissions objective.

“Most record attempts are round Britain and don't stop in Scotland,” Ritchie pointed out.

“Phil's record attempt facilitates real collaboration and partnerships to be developed with Scotland, a nation which has the most challenging climate change targets in the world.

“Working with Sail Scotland and Royal Channel yacht club in Jersey we now have the opportunity to develop relationships between the sailing communities and potentially create a major sailing race between Jersey and John o’Groats and possibly even further. This challenge could be the catalyst for that.”

The project’s scientific element is what has led to the involvement of H&IE which is committed to helping the region's businesses and communities make a transition towards a low carbon economy.

Sharp’s energy challenge has strong links with many of H&IE’s success stories as well as his ocean education programme. Not only has John o’Groats seen significant recent investment, but the Thurso based Environmental Research Institute at University for the Highlands &Islands has an ocean plastic programme which we know can support and collaborate with Sharp's activities.

Just across the Pentland Firth, Stromness based EMEC has a world leading wave and tidal energy testing centre and is driving forward on hydrogen storage technology solutions.

“Phil's small scale energy systems represent potential opportunities for remote and rural water and waste water treatment as energy supply,” Ritchie explained.

“Scotland's industries depend on its excellent water management. It's no accident that we have clean safe water with strong regulators and a publicly owned water utility focussed on innovation and constant improvement.

“The Scottish Government launched a recent agenda referred to as ‘Scotland: a hydro nation’. Ministers have to report to Parliament on how they are adding value to the water assets in Scotland.

“While this includes Scottish Water, more exciting is the value being driven into the economy from Scotland’s water related academics and our R&D intensive small and medium size enterprises, many of which are bringing new technologies forward which are helping make inroads with the Sustainable Development Goals.

“We are in discussion about water testing on The Vendee Globe and this challenge allows us to showcase the excellent research into plastic pollution. We are currently looking at an on board testing system that will provide evidence of plastic pollutants.”

None of which should distract from the fact that both this trip and Sharp’s Vendee Globe challenge, which will be undertaken on a bigger C-60 class boat, are simply epic adventures in their own right, as perhaps best summed up by the explanation of Simon Coughlin, the chief executive of Bruichladdich, for the sponsorship support they are providing.

“Sometimes we just can’t help getting swept along by passionate people doing inspirational things and everything about the can-do attitude of Phil Sharp and Sean Conway floats our boat at Bruichladdich,” he said.

“We also applaud the PSRacing team’s innovative energy conservation ambitions for the mighty Vendee Globe and setting this new End to End record in December is going to be a fast and very edgy step towards competing in that great race.

“As a company we are all about pushing boundaries and supporting talented people to challenge convention.”

He and his staff will be out on Islay’s wild west coast hoping to see the yacht as it hurtles past on its way to the Outer Hebrides and on to John o’Groat’s.

“Hopefully they will pass us during the hours of daylight in decent visibility,” said Coughlin.

“This is going to be one white knuckle ride. We wish them every success and are delighted to have the opportunity of supporting them.”

The record bid is expected, weather permitting, to get underway in the early part of next week. Their progress can be charted at http://yb.tl/psracing