"Challenge-7" was selected by Saito as the name of his upcoming race for several reasons. It's the first digit of his current age, for one thing, and this voyage will become his seventh globe-circling, single-handed quest. When he finishes Challenge-7 he will be 71 years old, which was the race number carried by Shuten-Doji II, his sailboat for all three BOC and Around Alone races in which he competed. In fact, "71" remains inscribed on the hull.

Saito's yachting life, at 31 years and virtually all the world's oceans, seems extensive for a Japanese sailor. But as Saito points out, "There are so many magnificent yachting sailors including Sir Peter Blake, who won the 1996 America's Cup over Dennis Conner in San Diego, but at age 57 years old was shot to death by South American pirates, and was also winner of the First Trans-Atlantic Alone Race (AOSTAS), and winner of the First Trans-Pac Race." Others, Saito said, were Eric Tamari, who was tragically lost at sea at age 67, and the famous single-handed skipper of Spray, Captain Joshua Slocum, as well as Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the original organizer of the Around Alone Race (renamed 5-Oceans Race from 2006). With more than 240,000 cruising and racing miles of his own, Saito is one of the few Japanese yachtsmen who even approaches their class of sailing, but he laughs: "They are all over 400,000-nautical-mile voyagers. Compared with these guys, I am still chichai, chichai (small, small)!"