![]() GPS and electronic autopilots didn’t exist in 1968, radio was primitive, and radar didn’t fit on small boats. A boat in trouble could not count on help from anyone. Some psychiatrists predicted that so many months totally alone, at times in extreme danger, might drive them mad.įew modern ships use the far Southern Ocean. ![]() ![]() It was expected that even the fastest competitor would take ten months to get home. The racers were required to depart between June and October in order to arrive at the Southern Ocean between November and February, when the southern hemisphere summer makes the sailing a little less hazardous. With that wind behind them, the racers would head east below Africa, then Australia, then South America, and then – if they got that far – north back to England. Image created by Joe Ronan, adapted from a NASA image in the public domain.įor the 30,000-mile circumnavigation, all the racers would sail from England down the Atlantic to the perilous Southern Ocean – the ‘Roaring Forties’ latitudes between 40 and 50 degrees south of the equator – where storms and waves that are sometimes immense blast eternally from the west, uninterrupted all the way around the world. The Golden Globe Race route reads from the top (England) down and to the right past Africa and Australia, then from the left side across the Pacific and around South America back up to England. They were racing each other and the clock. There were two awards – one a cash prize, the other a trophy – because the sailors were planning to leave at different times, and one might be the first to complete the trip while another who left later might turn out to be the fastest. The circumnavigation must be completed without outside physical assistance, and no fuel, food, water, or equipment may be taken aboard after the start. The Sunday Times Golden Globe will be awarded to the first non-stop single-handed circumnavigator of the world. The £5,000 Sunday Times round-the-world race prize will be awarded to the single-handed yachtsman who completes the fastest non-stop circumnavigation of the world departing after June I and before Octo. The editors decided to co-opt the whole thing by declaring it a race. In early 1968, editors and journalists at the Sunday Times in London noticed that several sailors were finding sponsors for their attempts at a new world record: to make the first solo voyage by sailboat around the world without stopping. Their stories are usually told as a contest of wills and endurance, but at heart, it was a contest of maintenance styles. ![]() Its drama continues to echo half a century later because three of the nine competitors became legendary – the one who won, the one who didn’t bother to win, and the one who cheated. Here’s one – the Golden Globe around-the-world solo sailboat race of 1968. P robably a great many famous stories could be retold in terms of maintenance. I’ll be announcing some of the changes I make and recognizing helpful commenters on my Twitter. You can help me with the piece by commenting here . In the terminology of the racers in this story, it’s a shakedown cruise, a sea trial – a time to find the things that need fixing while they’re still easy to fix. The story is a draft, an invitation to readers to comment while the text and illustrations are still malleable, open to improvement.
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