Two hands are better than one, they say, especially if you have them round your partner’s neck. An innovation in round-the-world sailing begins tomorrow as the nine boats in the Barcelona World Race set sail. For the first time, single-minded single-handers have paired up to circumnavigate the globe. Many are predicting some significant chafing between the couples as they spend three months and 30,000 miles together, but for Alex Thomson it is a relief that he will not be going down to the Southern Ocean alone.

“I don’t think about it very much any more, but if it was a single-handed race I’d really struggle,” Thomson, sitting on the foredeck of his new sleek, black Hugo Boss Open 60, says. “The last two times I’ve done it, something has gone really badly wrong in a similar place. I’ll be pretty glad to go past 44 [degrees] south and come on deck and see his smiling face there.”

The “his” refers to Andrew Cape, Thomson’s partner for this race, who, at 45 to Thomson’s 33, may be something of an avuncular presence for Thomson. He may need it as he descends into one of the most inhospitable places on the planet and confronts his nightmares.

Twice he has had to abort round-the-world races after serious mechanical failure. Twice he has ended up in the same bar in Cape Town, thanking his lucky stars that the only thing drowned were his sorrows.

They say that there is a round-the-world race with your name on it, so dangerous is the pursuit, and Thomson admitted to his fear of the Southern Ocean last year. On November 22, he was forced to make the gut-wrenching decision to abandon his boat 1,000 miles south of Cape Town after the keel broke off. He was rescued dramatically by Mike Golding, his arch-rival at the time, who was dismasted the next day. The two limped back to port, with Thomson in shock.

For many in the sailing community it was further evidence that Thomson, who earned his reputation for speed by breaking the solo 24-hour mono-hull record in 2003 with 468 miles, pushed his boats too hard. Thomson had had to pull out of the 2004 Vendée Globe in almost the same spot as last year’s failure, after the base of his mast broke.

Four months ago, three months late, his new £2 million-plus rocket ship, Hugo Boss, was delivered. “Forty per cent more powerful, 25 per cent lighter,” Thomson says. It was designed by Finot-Conq, which has designed the past four winners of the Vendée Globe. Since the most recent Vendée Globe, the blue riband race for solo sailors, in 2003-04, he has been plotting for next year’s race. But many, including Golding, think that he should concentrate on finishing the Barcelona World Race first.

“I think Hugo Boss have got to concentrate on not breaking, but they’ve got a problem because the boat is very new and I hope for Alex’s sake that he doesn’t have problems with the boat,” Golding said. “I’m quite sure if he doesn’t he will be quick.”

At 33, Thomson, who got into sailing as a 17-year-old after delivering a boat to Majorca and leaving behind his job as a packer in a plastics factory in Bangor, is getting a little old to be the wild child of sailing. He rejects Golding’s concern and the suggestion that there are times, when the boat is fully powered up, that he could throttle back, put a reef in, take a less aggressive angle with his canting keel.

“Where things have broken before, the two instances, you would never have known, so it’s an impossible question to answer,” Thomson says. “I’ve never really felt I’ve pushed the limit. There is a perception that I’m aggressive and I push really hard and that’s a nice reputation to have. It’s better than being dog slow.

“I think I’m quite capable of pushing a boat as hard as anybody else, but there are limits as to what you can and can’t do.”

Cape should help Thomson enormously in knowing when to push hard and, particularly, when not to. The Australian, who is based in Lymington, Hampshire, and has been with the team for 18 months, will bring navigation and meteorological skills. He has done it all when it comes to crewed races. He was part of the Swiss Alinghi team who won the America’s Cup in New Zealand in 2003 and has been on three Whitbread/Volvo round-the-world campaigns.

Golding says that he chose instead to compete in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the two-week, two-handed race, largely for technical reasons. “I think Alex will spend the first two weeks finding out what breaks and the rest of the time wishing he could get to the shore and fix it,” Golding said.

“Quite possibly . . . but I doubt it,” Thomson says, laughing. “You’re in a race, aren’t you, so you’re going to make do and get on with it.”

Thomson may feel his gung-ho reputation is undeserved, but he also cannot help cultivating the image and is looking forward to the chance to push his boat to the limit. “It is a bit frustrating sometimes to know that these boats can go faster and you can’t sail them to 100 per cent on your own,” he says. “Particularly in the south, it is going to be great fun, probably very scary as well.

“But don’t worry, I haven’t booked a house in Cape Town this time.”