When the 29-year-old Robin Knox-Johnston loaded his stores to set off on the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968, he was preparing to leave on a voyage that was truly into the unknown. Could it be done? Sailing alone around the world non-stop? It had never been done before.And how long would it take? A year… or more? There were more questions than answers as Knox-Johnston slipped his lines on June 14th 1968 and headed south, one of nine sailors trying to be the first to lap the planet non-stop and alone.

Initial progress was slow as Knox-Johnston was suffering from a bout of jaundice as he left. But he and Suhaili, the ketch he built himself, clawed their way south towards the Southern Ocean where the young naval officer was expecting the real tough test of his boat, his skill and his nerve to begin.

Suhaili was sighted by the occasional ship, but for eight and a half months Knox-Johnston was effectively out of communication with the rest of the world. He was unable to share the stories of 25 metre Southern Ocean waves, of self-steering damage that meant that Suhaili needed to be hand-steered or balanced precariously, or of the knockdowns that threatened to sink the tiny 32-foot ketch.

But after nearly a year at sea, after a bout of appendicitis that threatened to put an end to his attempt, Knox-Johnston arrived in Falmouth.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston had sailed alone around the world without stopping in 312 days. Nine sailors set out to become the pioneering first, but the British adventurer was the only one to complete the course. It was a moment in history of truly monumental proportions.

But Robin Knox-Johnston’s life of achievement did not stop there. In 1992 he teamed up with Peter Blake, who had been a watch captain on the Whitbread Round the World Race entry Condor skippered jointly by Knox-Johnston and Leslie Williams, to try and sail around the world in less than 80 days. In the spring of 1994 ENZA arrived at the finish having set a new time of 74 days and 22 hours.

And when most other people are fine-tuning a comfortable golf swing, Sir Robin, as he had become in 1995 after the ENZA trip, aged 67, set of to sail alone around the world once more… as an entry in the Velux 5 Oceans Race. And, after overcoming countless technical problems and frequent batterings from the elements, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Saga Insurance arrived at the finish in Bilbao in fourth place. It was one of the most heroic stories of the race and completed by a man with a genial smile but who, underneath, is one of the toughest adventurers alive today and whose first – sailing solo and non-stop around the world – will never be erased from the history books.

In landlocked Derbyshire, 100 miles from the sea, the young Ellen MacArthur spent her school days reading Chichester, Knox-Johnston and other seafaring adventurers… She had never been sailing in her life but something inside drew her towards the oceans.
Her departure from Hull, on an attempt to sail a tiny 21-foot cruiser around the British Isles, was the first nervous step into the unknown. Ellen was just 19 years old. But she completed the voyage – 1,900 miles in four and a half months. And it unleashed a drive, a determination and a passion for the sea that was to see Ellen MacArthur becoming one of the world’s most famous sailors.
But setting out on a new dream, of sailing non-stop and solo around the world, was never going to be easy. And the biggest challenge was perhaps just getting to the starting line. The long and lonely quest for sponsorship resulted in a single shining ray of hope through the lonely mists of rejection. The British company Kingfisher made a tentative commitment to Ellen with the sponsorship of her entry in the French solo Route du Rhum transatlantic race. Ellen delivered, winning her class in the race and showing the competitive streak that would characterise the next ten years of her life.
From there the plans to enter the Vendée Globe were brought to fruition. But as the 24-year-old cut a tiny and vulnerable figure on the dockside at the start of three months alone and uncertain at sea, those around her wished only for her safe return.
She not only returned safely. She finished the race in second place. It was an extraordinary achievement.But where most people would retire and live life on back of the Vendée stories, Ellen set her targets higher still. An attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy record ended mastless in the depths of the Southern Ocean. But all the while Ellen and her team were making plans for an even more adventurous project: to set the non-stop and solo record for sailing around the world.
This was a monumental challenge – a huge, powerful trimaran… and a time of 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 22 seconds to beat. It was an adventure that nearly got the better of Ellen on several occasions.
But on the night of the 71st day, Ellen arrived at the finish line off Ushant… exhausted… beaten… but victorious. She had set a new time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, 33 seconds and taken 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes, 49 seconds off the previous time. Ellen MacArthur became the fastest person to sail solo around the planet. And it is a record that still stands today.

 

Eric Tabarly became a legend in French sailing from the moment he beat the British to win the second edition of the single-handed transatlantic Race. Taking on the British nation and winning for France had a particularly pleasing resonance; and it echoed a usually friendly seafaring rivalry that has exists between the two nations to this day.But it was not so much the fact of Tabarly’s victory but the nature of it that elevated him so highly in the public perception in France. Because where his rivals sailed yachts designed and customised for their purposes, Tabarly took a yacht – the 44-foot Pen Duick 2 [pronounced like Buick the car] – that had been designed for a crew of eight, and sailed her alone. He beat the winner of the first edition of the race – Sir Francis Chichester – by nearly three days.Tabarly, on leave from the French Navy, was a tough and fearless man but he was also an innovator and it were these characteristics that would symbolise his approach to a professional sailing career that would last a lifetime.

Although it was single-handed sailing – in particular, victory in the single-handed transatlantic race – that elevated Eric Tabarly to legendary status – he was awarded France’s Legion D’Honneur for his triumph – the planet was calling. Before long Tabarly had not only competed in races like the Sydney Hobart, the Fastnet Race and the Transpac, winning line honours in all three and setting a new course record in the Transpac, he had begun to make plans to compete in a new round the world race – the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Eric Tabarly, sailing Pen Duick VI, led a team in the 1973 Whitbread where he finished second and by now Tabarly had reached film star status in France and was often photographed alongside leading French personalities. But it was always his oceanic exploits that drew the most attention… exploits such as his victory in the 1976 single-handed transatlantic race where he beat the massive 236-foot schooner Club Mediterranée in his 73-foot Pen Duick IV.

In 1984 Eric Tabarly was voted the most popular sports figure in France and in 1994, aged 63, he was drafted into the Whitbread Round the World Race again to take over the running of the French maxi La Poste where his legendary leadership skills were called upon to pull together a disparate team.

 

Tabarly loved sailing to the very end and it was during a voyage to Ireland to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pen Duick that he was struck by the boom and swept overboard to his death. France mourned, and the French Prime Minister said ‘This was a man who was afraid of nothing and followed his passion and his will to the end.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Elvström retired from Olympic sailing more than 20 years ago. But he remains the most successful Olympic sailor in the sport and the person whose name is most often mentioned when the best sailors in the world are asked to name their heroes. He is a person who is held in the highest regard as a sportsman, a man of integrity and a man of great skill.It began in 1948 when, aged just 20, Paul Elvström won his first Olympic gold medal. It was the days when the Firefly was the Olympic single-handed class.

When the Finn was introduced, Elvström made the top of the Olympic podium his own winning the Finn gold in 1952, 56 and 60. That record of four Golds has yet to be equalled and Elvström remains one of just three Olympians across all sports to have won four consecutive gold medals in the same Olympic discipline.

And he went on to compete in a further four Olympics, just missing out on a Star medal in Acapulco 1968 and a Tornado medal in Los Angelos 1984 when sailing with his youngest daughter Trine.

He is still the only sailor  in the world to win the world championship in five different classes.

But while Elvström was and is still many peoples’ pick for the greatest ever sailor, the Dane made an impact off the racecourse too. His series of books on the racing rules – with their wallet of small plastic boats – became the racing sailor’s bible for several decades. And he applied his skill and intelligence on the racecourse to the design of components that bear his legend even today – the Elvström self-bailer is still found on Olympic boats, and other grand prix boats at the leading edge of the sport. The Elvström Lifejacket was also the first that was designed and produced for active sailors across the world.

Paul Elvström pioneered techniques for hiking and ideas for training for sailing that paved the way for the modern athletic sport. And Elvström sailmakers – founded in 1954 – are still winning races to this day.

In short Paul Elvström is a not only one of the world’s most talented sailors,  but also a wholly rounded and intellectual sportsman who has achieved so much – not only in his career but with huge imprint on the sport which continues to exert an influence nearly 60 years after he first won gold.