Messing About In Sailboats

Peter Goss's Latest Venture

I just finished Pete Goss's Close To the Wind. Pete won't be winning any great prizes for literature but it's a great read nevertheless. The guy's amazing! He came from solid but humble trappings, joined the Royal Marines and then got the offshore sailing bug. More to the point, he resolved to sail a single-handed, non-stop circumnavigation.

With very little money, no reputation, few connections, Pete's story is one of incredible tenacity: Getting to the start line was probably tougher and scarier than completing the circumnavigation. He mortgaged his house, went deep into debt and worked his ass off. Tough at the best of time but with a wife and three small children this took incredible guts.

His endeavors at sea are well-known. Half-way into the Vendee, deep in the Southern Ocean, the fleet was slammed with a hurricane. One of the sailors, Raphael Dinelli, maydayed that he was sinking. Pete on Aquaquorum was 160 miles south and to windward. He didn't hesitate, he did what he was supposed to do and headed upwind into the storm, rescued Dinelli, who by then was floating in his life raft, close to death, having survived several days on his sinking boat in a horrendous storm.

After delivering Dinelli to Hobart, Goss re-entered the race, eventually coming fifth and returning to Les Sables D'Ollones to a massive heroes welcome.

His latest exploits are no less amazing. Goss was inspired by the voyage of the Mystery, a Cornish lugger, sailed by seven Cornish fishermen from the UK to Australia in 1864. To commemorate heir spirit, Goss has built the Spirit of Mystery, a replica 37 ft wooden sailing lugger that he will soon sail to Australia.

Spirit of Mystery was launched on Saturday. He has a great blog about the building of the boat that tracks its construction day-by-day. For someone like me who can barely hammer a nail, it's intimidatingly fascinating.

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.

Great Sailors and Their Boats - Troubled Affairs, Part 3

Part 2.

At the far end of the spectrum of the relationship between Man and Boat are the tragic affairs. In a perverse way, they are probably the most interesting. One of the most famous examples were the cases Donald Crowhurst and Nigel Tetley’s relationships with their trimarans Teignmouth Electron and Victress in the Golden Globe race of 1968. They were identical boats and considered cutting edge speed machines that theoretically would win the race.

Crowhurst mortgaged his house and bet his business in constructing the boat that he thought would bring him fame and fortune. It was tricked out with the latest in marine technology manufactured by Crowhurst’s own company. To the outside world, his boat was a floating advertisement for Crowhurst’s genius, his business and the future of sailing.

Behind the scenes, it was a different story. The boat was constantly, behind schedule, not built to Crowhurst’s specifications and certainly not ready to cross the start line of the Golden Globe race by the October 31^st 1968 cut-off. 

Underway, the electronics never worked properly and the boat started to delaminate early in the race. She leaked like a sieve taking on water, very seriously in one pontoon. He knew early on that his boat would fall apart in the Southern Oceans. It was desperate. He just couldn’t do it and his boat as well his own abilities had let him down. Rather than face the shame and financial ruin of abandoning the race, Crowhurst had a different strategy. He stayed in the relative safety of the Atlantic radioing in false positions. These showed him still in the race. His aim was to sail in circles till the other racers returned to the Atlantic and then rejoin the race taking second in the prize for fastest time to complete the race. Well, that was his plan.

Tetley and his wife lived aboard their trimaran, Victress. He was the last to enter the Golden Globe race, practically doing it on a whim, quickly outfitting it for the circumnavigation. The fact that he was able to get her ready that quick was a testament to his Royal Navy training.  For most of the race his boat performed well. He started late but gained ground gradually. As racers like Chay Blyth and others abandoned the race, he found himself one of four competitors left and in third place. He knew that he wouldn’t win the prize to cross the line first as either RKJ or Moitessier looked like taking that. It seemed a certainty that Moitessier would also win the prize for fastest race.

Then a bizarre thing happened. In a spiritual epiphany, Moitessier abandoned the race, turned south out of the Atlantic and headed east for the Indian Ocean. There were three boats left: RKJ heading for home and line honors, Crowhurst who was ostensibly in third and Tetley in second place with a certainty of winning the prize for fastest time.

His boat had other ideas. He was in the Atlantic and on the last leg home when like Crowhurst’s, Teley’s trimaran started to delaminate. Thinking that Crowhurst was on his tail he pushed Victress too hard. She took on too much water and started sinking. Tetley was forced to radio for help, abandon his boat, his home and his opportunity of glory 1,200 miles from the finish. Tetley returned quietly home, was awarded a 1,000 GBP consolation prize and was pretty much forgotten.

Crowhurst, meanwhile was faced with a huge dilemma. With only RKJ left in the race, he could definitely claim the prize for fastest circumnavigation but he was horrified by the prospect. He knew that he would never get away with it. If he had come in second in the time race and third overall it was less likely that his logs would be scrutinized by the race committee led by an already suspicious Francis Chichester. Even then it was a big gamble. If he won the speed prize, his records would be pored over and he knew that he would be caught out. Crowhurst was a brilliant mathematician and had done a spectacular feat in calculating plausible false positions for months on end but he knew though that tough scrutiny would uncover his fraud.

In the end, was driven mad by the lie he had created. Had his boat performed he would most likely have completed the race. He would not have won but at least he would have kept his dignity. The shame and desperation was too much for him. His boat was found floating unmanned in the Caribbean. Crowhurst had thrown himself or fallen overboard.

Tetley’s story is less well-know but equally tragic. After the race  he took his consolation prize and started to build a boat called Miss Vicky with the intention of completing his circumnavigation. He was never able to raise enough to outfit her for the vessel. On a quiet afternoon in 1972, Tetley went to the end of his garden and hanged himself from a tree. He left no suicide note so one can only speculate why. It seems likely that the deep loneliness of his attempted circumnavigation had been especially tough on him. Followed by the desperation of failures and his sinking, one can guess that this as too much for him.

PART IV COMING SOON – HAS THE ROMANCE GONE

Great Sailors and Their Boats - Troubled Affairs, Part 2

Part 1

One of the most surprising relationships between Man and Boat was Francis Chichester and Gypsy Moth IV. Gypsy Moth IV is mythologized in England. She sits (sat? I think she may have been moved) next to the Cutty Sark at Greenwich, within spitting distance of the Maritime Museum and the Greenwich Meridian. She is a monument to Chichester’s circumnavigation and British maritime accomplishment.

In reality, Chichester had a very fractious relationship with Gypsy Moth IV. She was built for him with the single purpose of racing round the world.  She was long, thin, high off the water and light. At the age of 64 and in poor health, Chichester was very concerned that he could handle Gypsy Moth’s 54 feet for the hundreds of days his circumnavigation would take. He braved the longer waterline in the interest of speed.   

She should have been a delight but from the start it was a troubled relationship. She was a rocker. Even on her mooring, she would hobbyhorse, presaging perpetual seasickness for Chichester. She was very tippy. During her sea trials, she healed too far over in fairly moderate conditions and had a tendency to broach. Chichester was worried sick that she would capsize.

He had substantial weight added to the keel. So much weight, that it diminished her speed to that of a boat with a much shorter waterline.  So he had a boat that was longer than he wanted to handle that went slower than a boat several feet shorter. Not a great start.

During his circumnavigation, it is clear from his autobiography that handling and fixing the multitude of gear failures caused Chichester a huge amount of stress. It was rare that he spoke of Gypsy Moth IV with affection during the first half of his circumnavigation.

In the end, she did the job and with some significant changes to the keel length and rigging at his stop-over in Sydney, he made her easier to sail on the homeward leg, even surviving a capsize in the Southern Pacific.

I still find it surprising that a boat that is generally regarded as a symbol of the highest British sailing accomplishment, a boat that is more famous that Robin Knox-Joshnton’s Suhaili, let alone Ellen Macarthur’s boat, BQ/Castorama was actually a bugger to sail and worried Chichester sick.

PART 3 TOMORROW - TRAGIC AFFAIRS

Great Sailors and Their Boats - Troubled Affairs, Part 1

There is an old saying that the happiest day of your life is the day you buy your first boat. And the second happiest day is the day you sell it.

I can’t relate to this. I have only ever owned one boat, a very used Cape Dory Typhoon. She was 12 years old when we bought her, solidly built, fairly well-maintained, a little grubby and her sails were functional but old. My wife and I loved her. We gave her, her first name Alad (a contraction of our first names); we cleaned her up, worked on her teak, and then tried to clean the teak stains I had created.  We bought her presents like new cushions and a sturdy British Seagull outboard engine. Above all we sailed her. Every weekend we could, without fail on “lovely” Galveston Bay.  Never more than a day sail but she was our sanity and a very important part of our early marriage.

When our son came along, we sold her. It was a sad day. We were blue for weeks about it. We still miss her.

Since then, it’s been renting and reading. Chartering whenever we can and reading pretty much anything written about sailing (lately, especially the backs of the sailing magazines. At some point Alad II is going to happen).

Mostly I have been reading about the great sailing adventures of the single-handers: Chichester, Knox-Johnston, Slocum, MacArthur and even Donald Crowhurst, poor guy. The thing that struck me most about these stories is the range of relationships these sailors had with their boats.

Like love affairs, they come in many varieties, from the spiritual to the down-to-earth nature of a long solid marriage, from the troubled short-lasting affair to the tragedy of a flawed relationship.

At one end of the spectrum was Bernard Moitessier with his speed machine, Joshua. She was a model of functionality. Built out of steel with a telephone pole for a mast, not especially beautiful to look at but Moitessier had an almost spiritual relationship with her. In my view, Moitessier seemed have spiritual relationships with just about anything except living humans. Moitessier had the opportunity to be the most famous sailor ever. He had a shot at winning the first and fastest son-stop solo circumnavigation in the Golden Globe race of 1968. Instead, he abandoned the race and rather than return home to his real wife, he stayed at sea to be at one with Joshua, the sea and nature.

Then, there were the more down-to-earth relationships that Knox-Johnston had with Suhaili and Slocum with Spray. Like a comfortable long-standing marriage, they knew their boats well, what they could expect from them, cared for them and were grateful for what they got in return. Nothing too flashy or passionate, the relationships just worked, They weren’t especially sentimental about each other but like a good marriage it was based on trust. Man and boat, counting on each other, protecting each other.

PART 2 TOMORROW. – FRANCIS CHICHESTER AND GYPSY MOTH IV