Aboard the ship berthed at Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui, Utgaard spoke of the perils at sea, the varied crew that he sails with, and the initial construction woes that faced the Gotheborg - a full-scale replica of the historic East Indiaman merchant vessel of the same name that floundered off the city of Gothenburg in 1745.

Utgaard recalled what he described as the most dangerous legs of the voyage while the Gotheborg was traversing the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

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"We were in the middle of nowhere, out of helicopter range, out of rescue range, and there was very little traffic. If anything bad happened, it would be a while before anybody would have come our way," he said.

According to Utgaard, the biggest challenge he faces is safety. "Sail ships can flounder in storms. It's about staying away from very bad weather. Safety weighs heavily on the captain, so I plot safe routes and try to use the weather systems. In the end, the technology will only give you an idea, and often at times, it's off. It comes down to taking precautions," he said.

Chief officer Ulf Hed, who has worked under Utgaard for 10 years, said he had the utmost faith in his commanding officer. "He's a good captain, very direct. Really good with the weather, it's like a sixth sense," he said.

Construction of the original Gotheborg took 18 months, but building the second took 10 years - all because of problems with steady funding. The nonprofit project was undertaken by the Swedish East India Company and building stopped intermittently throughout due to the lack of funds. Help came in the form of Volvo, SKF - an industrial components supplier - and SwedBank who stepped in as official sponsors.

But the construction woes did not stop at the bank. "There were a lot of skeptics and we faced criticism while the ship was being built. People said she wouldn't steer, a ship like this is uncontrollable," Utgaard said.

But the skeptics were silenced after the Gotheborg slid out of dry dock and performed well in trials along the Swedish coast.

"I felt great joy when she made it out onto the open seas," said Utgaard, who rated the ship's performance as "excellent," adding: "Shipwrights 250 years ago were quite skilled."

Utgaard described his captain's role as one of total responsibility. "My job is to handle everything on the ship and I am responsible for everything - from the food, even though I don't cook it, to the engineer who spills some oil. I'm responsible for safety and for my crew, on and off the boat," he said.

But his position of total authority means he can't lean on anybody. "You're alone in these things, and you're physically separate from the crew. Isolated but not always, but there must be a minimum of distance. You have to remind them you're the captain," he said.

The modern crew of the Gotheborg have no problem with motivation or discipline as 50 of them are volunteers, rotating every two months, while 20 others are professional sailors. "Nobody questions orders so things work like magic," was Utgaard's assessment.

He saw his crew as "a cross section of the civilized world" - bus drivers, students, computer programmers and carpenters - all serving with 20 officers from the merchant marine and navy, the only ones with seafaring experience.

Competition is tight to get a volunteer position, with some 3,000 applicants vying for the coveted 50 spots, according to Lisa Larsson, a 24-year- old Hong Kong University student and deckhand for the Gotheborg's test trials in 2004.

She emphasized that a place aboard was "a once in a lifetime opportunity and her greatest adventure so far."

The vessel will be berthed at Harbour City until next Wednesday after which she will visit Stanley Bay to celebrate the first anniversary of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. The journey to Sweden continues on December 11, via Singapore, where she is expected in time to celebrate New Year.