Messing About In Sailboats

UPDATE 2- Make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day On The Web

In addition to number of folks who I mentioned last week, signed up to Make April 22nd RKJ Day there were a bunch I missed or who just joined.

Thomas Armstrong of the excellent 70.8% was the first to put his hand up, closely followed by Carol Anne of 5 o'clock somewhere.

RKJ's respect spreads far and wide with the Swedish site, blur.se saying they will take part. It's a great blog even like me you don't speak a word of Swedish.

In addition, Sheila from All About Boats will be taking a break from cruising the Caribbean to celebrate. As will Brian of a Movable Bridge. If anyone should know about what an amazing feat RKJ accomplished, it's Brian as he sailed round the world on Clipper Ventures and even had a beer with the man himself.

Redwing will also be taking part as will Alan Cooke of Crewtraders. Last but not least NY Waterway blooger and watercolor painter extraordinaire, Christine of Bowsprite

Buzz is also starting on Twitter. If you use Twitter and want to tweat about this, put #RKJ in your tweat as Mark Hendy has done.

To join the movement to Make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day, please shoot me an email or join the Facebook Group. As if writing this, there are 37 people in the group from the US, UK, Sweden and Switzerland.

UPDATE 1- Make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day On The Web

So far some real progress in Making April 22nd RKJ Day on the web. The Tillerman has done a great post on the pros and cons of this initiative. It is a competitive date, not least as it's Earth Day.

In addition, EVK4 is going to do something through the SF Examiner, Frogma Bonnie, Captain JP, The Peconic Puffin and Three Sheets Northwest have signed up.

Peter McGrath let me know that RKJ is a trustee of the Beagle Project. He knows RKJ a little and may be able to get a message from him.

The Facebook group is growing fast. It's already at 16 members and adding new members fast. I also got a link on the H2O Show's Facebook page. This is a BBC Radio Show that RKJ presents for. You can get a podcast of it. I strongly recommend it, it's a great show for sailors.

If you are interested in joining this movement, please email me.

Thanks

Make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day On The Web - How to Show Your Support

 If you missed my post last month, I am trying to start a movement to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Robin Knox-Johnstons' non-stop, solo circumnavigation on April 22nd, winning the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race.

Robin Knox-Johnston, is excuse the cliche, a true legend of sailing and adventure. Even now, a nons-top solo circumnavigation feat is still regarded as the Everest of sailing. In this year's Vendee Globe, only 10 of the 30 who entered the race completed. Imagine what it was like to undertake this feat in 1969. Here is what RKJ had to say in his own words:

'The difference between when I set off to sail around the world non-stop 40 years ago and today shows a period of intense development in sailing; the equivalent to the difference between the era of the bi-plane and Concorde.
 
'Psychologically then there was the worry of not knowing whether a non-stop voyage was possible. Nor did anyone know what sort of boat was right for the task. We navigated as Captain James Cook had 200 years before, had no weather forecasts, no emergency beacons and no reliable communications. You judged the weather to come from barometer readings and studying the clouds."

Join me in celebrating the 40th anniversary by making April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day of the Web. Here are three ways you can show your support:

1. Blog about it: On April 22nd do a post congratulating RKJ - whatever you think is an appropriate message - then link to another blog who should in turn do a congratulatory post, again linking to another blog, etc, creating a chain of bloggers and a virtual Robin Knox-Johnston Day.

2. Post to The Wall on Facebook: I created a group in Facebook to make April 22nd RKJ Day on the Web. You can join it here. Best way to show your support is to post to the wall. Do it anytime and I will copy the posts over to this blog.

3. Twitter: Do a tweat on April 22nd, including #RKJ in the text. I will find it and post in on this blog.

If you have other ideas about how to show your support, please let me know and I will help spread the word.

Please email me and let me know if you will be taking part.

Thanks

The Sunday Times Golden Globe in 4 1/2 Minutes

Nice mini-documentary (although a little pixelated) about the Golden Globe, 40 years ago including interviews with Robin Knox-Johnston and Chay Blyth. Also some snippets of Donald Crowhurst - poor man.

Make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day On The Web

April 22nd is the 40th anniversary of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's non-stop circumnavigation and victory in the Golden Globe Race. This is arguably the greatest sailing feat in our lifetime. It is certainly historic and worth celebrating.

This is call-to-action for all sailing bloggers. Lets make April 22nd Robin Knox-Johnston Day on the web.

Here is an idea: On April 22nd do a post congratulating him - whatever you think is an appropriate message - then link to another blog who should in turn do a congratulatory post, again linking to another blog, etc, creating a chain of bloggers and a virtual Robin Knox-Johnston Day.

By the way, today is Robin Knox Johnston's 70th birthday. Happy Birthday RKJ!

The difference of 40 years

It was raining on Saturday so I took it as a good excuse to quit raking and shoveling leaves and watch the DVD of Deep Water again. If you haven't seen it, I would give it a whirl. It's a good documentary about the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, 40 years ago. The focus is on the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst. The interviews with his wife, son and best friend are very moving.

With the Vendee Globe in full swing, it struck me what an incredible revolution that sailing has undergone in the last 40 years. I blogged about it before when Joyon completed his incredible 54 day circumnavigation. It's worth taking a look at the differences.

The Prize: The Vendee Globe has one winner - fastest time. The racers in the Golden Globe were sailing for two prizes- First home and fastest time. RKJ as the only sailor to complete the race won both.

The Course: For all intents and purposes the course hasn't changed much. The main differences are that the Vendee starts in the Sables D'Olonnes, a few hundred miles south of the start of the Golden Globe off the Southwest coast of England. Secondly, the Vendee racers will go further South than in the Golden Globe but it's essentially the same bloody terrifying course: South to Cape of Good Hope, through the Roaring Forties for most of the race, a dip South around Cape Horn, then left turn for home.

The biggest difference is that all racers in the Vendee started at the same time, crossing the start line on November 9th, timed so that the race will take place during the Austral summer for obvious reasons. In the Golden Globe, the racers had to start between June 1st and October 31st. The racers were spread far and wide around the globe until the closing month. At about this time forty years ago, Robin Knox-Johnston on Suhaili would have been East of Australia when Donald Crowhurst would be somewhere in the Northern Atlantic.

The Boats: This is where the difference is most striking. In the Vendee Globe, the racers sail Open 60s. All 59-60 feet long monohulls with similar rigs. Most of the boats have carbon fiber hull and masts, Kevlar sails and an incredible array of communications and navigation technologies. The boats are evenly matched.

Forty years ago, the contrasts could not have been more dramatic. The 9 boats ranged from seasoned blue-water monohull cruisers to freshly built, innovative trimarans. Moitessier's Joshua was a relatively sleek, steel speed-machine that surfed the big waves in a storm. RKJ's Suhaili was a 32 foot teak ketch. Suhaili weighed as much as one of today's Open 60s although about half the size. Chay Blyth and John Ridgway sailed small weekend cruisers. Not surprisingly neither made the circumnavigation.

As for technology, forty years ago it was a radio, a magnetic compass, a sextant, a log, a log book, the all-important wind vane steering auto helm and that was about it.

The biggest difference is speed. The Open 60s will take about 90 days to make the circumnavigation. RKJ took 313 days to make the same 28,000 miles. RKJ's average speed 3.39 kts. The Open 60s will average 15+ kts. Can anyone think of any other mode of transportation that has evolved as significantly in 40 years?

The Racers: Forty years ago, no one had sailed non-stop round the world. Francis Chicester had done it with a stop in Australia. The uncertainty that the 9 men faced in 1968 was incredible. Could they withstand the rigors and the psychological strain of 10 months at sea? In the end, RKJ was the only one who came out successful and unscathed. Moitessier was already a little close to nuts before he started and abandoned the race to keep going for another 6 months on a spiritual voyage of self-discovery. Tetley nearly completed the race but his boat sank. Tragically he killed himself 3 years after the race. Crowhurst's story is well-documented. The other 5 sailors had abandoned much earlier - most before they rounded the Cape of Good Hope.

Forty years ago, no qualification was needed to participate. Although many of the racers were very experienced not all were up to the job. Crowhurst was a weekend sailor and Chay Blyth was reading a manual on how to sail as he left Southampton.

Now, all 30 competitors are essentially professional sailors. Most of the racers come from France and the UK as they did for the most part in the Golden Globe. In 1968, they were all men. It was unthinkable that a woman would take part. Today two of the competitors are women, following in the footsteps of Ellen MacArthur.

To participate in the Vendee Globe, a racer needs to have completed a Transatlantic race at least. They know what they are getting into and have the experience to deal with it. These days, the racers have two huge challenges - completing the race and raising the money to take part. Sponsorship is hard to come by and the cost of building, equipping and maintaining an Open 60 is gargantuan. In Peter Goss's excellent Close To The Wind, it was clear that getting to the start was as big a challenge as completing a particularly tough race.

Don't get me wrong, the 30 sailors in the Vendee Globe face an incredibly tough challenge. I couldn't do it. The sophistication of their boats and the speed at which they sail make them all the more fragile as the early days of the race have already shown. To me though, the challenge they face today just reinforces what an incredible undertaking it was forty years ago and the awesome scale of RKJ's feat in being the only sailor to complete the race.

The Golden Globe vs Vendee Globe

In all the excitement of the Vendee Globe, it's easy to forget that it's the 40th anniversary of the original solo round-the-world race, the Sunday Times Golden Globe. The official start of the Golden Globe was any time between June 1st 1968 and October 31st. The sailors were racing for two prizes: First to make it round and fastest circumnavigation.

The racers started in batches: Robin, Knox Johnston, Chay Blyth, John Ridgway started in June. Moitessier, Fougeron and King started in August, Nigel Tetley in September. The ill-fated and inadequately prepared Crowhurst and the celebrated Italian, Carozzo were last to start, crossing the line on the last possible date, October 31st.

By this day 40 years ago, Ridgway, Blyth, Fougeron, King had all retired. Carozzo would retire on November 14th. The race was left to the unknown Knox-Johnston, the famous Moitessier, Nigel Tetley and Crowhurst in their innovative trimarans. At this time the racers were spread far apart. Knox-Johnston was off Australia, Moitessier sailing like the clappers was 1,100 miles east of Capetown, Tetley was nearing Trinidade. Crowhurst had barely been sailing for a week and was already having problems. His boat was leaking badly and by now he would be acutely aware that the Roaring Forties would be impossible for his boat the Teignmouth Electron.

 While I will be watching the 2008 Vendee Globe closely, the original race fascinates me more. When Joyon completed his incredible circumnavigation in 54 days, I found the comparison to RKJ's feat all the more compelling. Apparently I am not alone, as this recent comment suggests:

Another view since I don't see the comparison - RKJ's boat was bought for a very small sum and is the type of boat which can be built by a person with traditional boatbuilding skills using natural products - wood. RKJ navigated the ocean using a sextant and chronometer. His motives were not for financial gain (he gave away the prize money to Crowhurst's family) and it was truly a solo effort.
The other, is a major corporate undertaking costing millions, reliant on teams of people working around the clock (weather routers, advisors blah blah blah), using artificial products, electronics and all types of whiz bang unreliable gadgetry. Have we really achieved much? I know which adventure I'd rather read about. Rod Lawson

As the 40th anniversary of the Gloden Globe's completion nears in 2009, it will be interesting to see how much this event and accomplishment is celebrated. I hope that the original race and RKJ are given its recognition.

It was 40 years ago today...

Robin Knox Johnston set out on the Golden Globe. He was the least known of the competitors, racing in a heavy relatively small teak boat. Ten months later he was a national hero. Here is a release today from Clipper Ventures c/o Sailworld.

On 14 June Sir Robin Knox-Johnston celebrated the 40th anniversary of the day he set off to set the record for the world’s first ever solo and non-stop circumnavigation on Saturday. Sir Robin left Falmouth with his 32-foot Bermudan ketch Suhaili on 14 June 1968 and returned 312 days later on 22 April 1969 to become the first person to sail single handed and non-stop around the world.
 
Last year Sir Robin completed another solo circumnavigation at the age of 68 in the VELUX 5 OCEANS, this time in his Open 60 SAGA INSURANCE. Earlier this year Sir Robin was awarded the Yachting Journalist Association’s prestigious Yachtsman of the Year Award for an unprecedented three times in recognition of his achievements over the past 40 years.
 
Speaking from Sydney in Nova Scotia, Sir Robin said: 'The difference between when I set off to sail around the world non-stop 40 years ago and today shows a period of intense development in sailing; the equivalent to the difference between the era of the bi-plane and Concorde.
 
'Psychologically then there was the worry of not knowing whether a non-stop voyage was possible. Nor did anyone know what sort of boat was right for the task. We navigated as Captain James Cook had 200 years before, had no weather forecasts, no emergency beacons and no reliable communications. You judged the weather to come from barometer readings and studying the clouds.
 
'Today we have very fast boats designed for the purpose and made from modern materials like carbon, only just heard of 40 years ago. We know the voyage can be achieved non-stop, which removes the psychological pressure.
 
'We have GPS instead of the sextant so we have accurate positions every three seconds instead of sometimes having to wait five days to see the sun. We have instant communications via satellites and these communications enable us to download accurate weather information that can predict the meteorological conditions up to ten days in advance allowing tactical routing.
 
'Clothing is much better, freeze dried food has replaced tins, and water makers replaced large tanks or rain from the mainsail.
 
'Still, as I had no idea that all these treats were on the horizon as none had been invented and as satellites were in their infancy, I did not miss them. We have moved on and the game is different. That is sad in a way as the raw adventure of those days has gone,' Sir Robin added.

Golden Globe - The Competitors: Robin Knox Johnston

Robin Knox-Johnston was born in Putney, London on March 17th, 1939. He had a traditional, English middle-class upbringing. He didn't especially excel at school and wasn't much of a sportsman. An average sort of chap.

Although he grew up in the age of rock and roll and the swinging 60s, RKJ was a traditional bloke. His heroes were historical figures like Frobisher and Drake.

At 17, he tried to enter the Royal Navy but failed the exams and joined the Merchant Marine instead, as an apprentice to the British India Steam Navigation Company. He learned his nautical craft, over several years, working the routes between London, East Africa and India. The British Merchant marine was tough place to grow up. Run along 19th century lines, it was everything you could imagine  about a stodgy, uptight and disciplinarian  environment to work in.

While stationed in India, RKJ and 2 fellow officers, commissioned the construction of sturdy, bluff-bowed double-ender based on the style of a Norwegian lifeboat. Constructed by hand in Indian teak, she was heavy, solid and anything but like the newer sleek fiber glass yachts. More like a small dhow that the shipyard was used to building They named her Suhaili after the wind in the Arabian Gulf.

This should have been joyous time for RKJ but it was anything but that. His marriage had fallen apart and his partners lost interest. RKJ soldiered on, buying out the partners. He, his brother and another officer sailed Suhaili back from India, with stops to work ashore and a final leg, 8,000 mile 74 day leg back to England.

Back home, the news was all about sailing. Francis Chichester was two months from home. In addition, Eric Tabarly, a Frenchman had just won the OSTAR transatlantic race. RKJ and his father were discussing it over breakfast and speculated that Tabarly might go after Chichester's record or go round non-stop "That's about all there's left to do now.." his father speculated.

The prospect that anyone but an Englishman would achieve this rankled RKJ. In his view, this should be a record set by an Englishman. Could RKJ be that Englishman?

Suhaili had proved to be seaworthy but slow - too slow for a race around the world. RKJ started to wonder what sort of boat he would need and whether he was personally suited to the task.  Like a brutal prison sentence - solitary confinement, hard labor and the possibility of death - the prospect of a non-stop, solo circumnavigation was awesome. Would he go mad?

These days, we take a circumnavigation for granted, maybe even a solo one but in 1967, it had not been done. The prospect was hard to imagine, even terrifying.

In April 1967, RKJ decided that he would do it. This is something about RKJ. He thinks it through, sees the shape of the voyage, makes a decision and irrespective of what others say, he gets on with it. There is no turning back.

His first order of business was to get the right boat. He put Suhaili up for sale and then began discussion with Colin Mudie, a well-known yacht designer who was enthusiastic about the venture.

Mudie's design was a 53 ft long yacht, simple and lightweight although made from steel.  The construction was so unusual that it took a while to find someone who would build it. Even the cheapest possibility of getting the boat built and ready for sale was 5,000 GPB about $100,000 in today's money.

The problem was that RKJ had no money, nobody would sponsor him and Suhaili was not selling. RKJ was undeterred by this and started to think about what it would take to ready Suhaili for the job. She wasn't fast but she was seaworthy enough. She would need a refit, new sails and need to be loaded with a year's  supply of food. This was still more than he could personally afford.

Fortune smiled on RKJ in the form of George Greenfield, a literary agent who specialized in adventurers, including Francis Chichester. Greenfield's instincts about RKJ was that he was made of the same stuff as Chichester and gave him an advance on the rights to a book about the voyage. This was enough for the refit. He still needed more to get the boat ready.

RKJ approached the Sunday Times who had backed Francis Chichester but they felt that his prospects were not good enough and had backed another, "Tahiti" Bill Howell. Ironically, Howell dropped out before the race started. Greenfield persuaded the Sunday Mirror to step up.

RKJ had the funds he needed to get Suhaili ready for the venture. It was early 1968 and although the race had not officially been announced, RKJ was getting ready.

   

Sources: Wikipedia, RKJ's site and Peter Nichols' Voyage for Madmen.

Forty Years Ago - The Golden Globe Race is announced

On March 17th, 1968, the Sunday Times announced the race for the world's first solo navigation. Plans had been brewing for a year. After Francis Chichester completed the fastest solo circumnavigation with one stop, a young merchant seaman, Robin Knox-Johnston concluded that the only thing left was to do it solo, non-stop.

By January 1968, several other sailors were getting interested and finding sponsors. This included more accomplished  and already famous sailors such as Bernard Moitessier. Plans were brewing across the sailing world for something big.

The Sunday Times had profited well from their sponsorship of Francis Chichester's circumnavigation. They had been approached by a number of the potential circumnavigators but they were worried about backing the wrong horse. Instead they came up with the idea of a sponsored race, The Golden Globe trophy.

There would be cash prizes - 5,000 GBPs (equiv to $100,000 today) for the first solo non-stop circumnavigation and another 5,000 GBP for the fastest time. To minimize the chance that someone coming in and scooping the record without entering the race thus stealing their thunder, they made automatic entry.

This created obvious safety issues, given that competitors did not have to have to demonstrate any ability to complete a single-handed passage. The only concession to safety was that competitors had to start between June 1st and October 31st to pass through the Southern Ocean in the summer.

The one other significant condition was that racers had to start from England. Bernard Moitessier planned to leave from Toulon for his circumnavigation. The Sunday Times clearly did not want to lose the opportunity of having a celebrated guy like Moitessier take part so they approached him about changing his plans. Moitessier was horrified about the idea of a sponsored race.  He felt passionately about the spirituality of the venture and that money was toxic to the whole thing. He rejected the whole thing outright.

A few days later he came back and said that he would take part but if he won, he would claim his prize, sell the trophy and not say a word of thanks.  He refused to do radio interviews or give any progress report throughout the race but he would take photos.  God I love the French!

On the day the race was announced there were 5 competitors: Moitessier, Knox-Johnston, John Ridgway, a British Army captain with little sailing experience but who had rowed the Atlantic,  Bill King, a Royal navy officer and his junk-rigged schooner Galway Blazer and "Tahiti" Bill Howell, an Australian cruising sailor. Howell later dropped out.

Four days later a new and ill-fated entrant joined the race, Donald Crowhurst. Crowhurst was in it for the fame, the money and what it would do for his small marine electronics business. He had ambitious plans for a trimaran that would be rigged with the innovative gear his firm manufactured.

It was still 3 months till the start but the venture was afoot.