April 20th marks the 40 year anniversary of Robin Knox-Johnston's victory in the first ever around-the-world singlehanded non-stop sailboat race. What we now call the Vendee Globe traces it roots to the Golden Globe - and that first race captures everything I love about sailing.What is so interesting about the Golden Globe are the individual stories it holds. Robin Knox-Johnston won the race through quiet perseverence and attrition, and then came back almost 30 years later at the age of 68 to finish 4th in the Velux 5 Oceans race, in a boat that could not have been more radically different than his 32' teak Suhaili.
Chasing RKJ around the Capes was Bernard Moitessier, sailing a steel ketch with telephone poles for masts. Moitessier was ambivalent about the race to say the least, and after rounding Cape Horn and being in a position to easily pass RKJ on the home stretch, he decided to sail halfway around the globe again to Tahiti. Nevermind the prize money, wife or stepchildren that were waiting for him back in France.
And in the midst of all of this, Donald Crowhurst is sailing in circles off of South America, making false position reports and slowly going mad. His boat would eventually be found, including a logbook documenting his unraveling.
Read more about Robin Knox-Johnston at Adam's blog, Messing About in Sailboats - he'll give you the full story and lots of great links. And take it directly from the Horse's Mouth - Joe is a fellow Moitessier fan and offers up some primary source material.
I consider Moitessier's The Long Way, which chronicles his experience of the race, to be required reading. For an excellent narrative on the Golden Globe, see Peter Nichols' A Voyage for Madmen. Pick these up from Bluewater Books/Armchair Sailor and you'll be supporting a great business.
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