Land-locked firefighters from West Yorkshire, including some from Bradford, are preparing to defend their UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge title – with just one day of training.

Four teams of eight from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service will compete against 30 crews from across the country in the three-day annual competition in the Solent next week.

But with limited access to water, the teams, which won the title in 2009 and 2012, have yet to complete any training. They will take part in their first practice session the day before the event, which starts on Tuesday.

Watch Commander Darren Bagley, of Huddersfield, said: “Most of the other brigades are from coastal regions, mainly from the South Coast, and West Yorkshire is quite clearly land-locked. We don’t train.

“The event starts on Tuesday, but we’ll travel down on the Monday for our first and only training session before the other crews arrive.

“I think we surprise a lot of them with how well we do – especially when we don’t do any training. We won it last year and in 2009 and we’ll be ready to give them hell again this year.”

The event will see the crews race 40ft yachts over three days, staying at Yarmouth and Cowes during the evening.

They have a secret weapon in their midst – skipper Peter Crowther.

Mr Bagley said: “Our success lies mainly with our skipper who has more than 40 years’ dinghy-racing experience and has transferred his expertise seamlessly to a bigger scale. “Peter was recently the world firefighter dinghy racing champion.”

The West Yorkshire crew has used the event to raise thousands of pounds for Yorkshire Cancer Research and Huddersfield Downs Syndrome Support Group.

It has also secured sponsorship from The Woodman Inn in Thunderbridge, nationwidebathrooms.com, Lucas Lee and Partners chartered surveyors and Kevan Davey of Concerto Support Services in Cheshire.

To sponsor them, visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/WYFSCharitySailingTeam