Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008 - (Page 71)

A taste for space… "I don’t know if I was born with a passion for being alone for days on end in the wildest parts of the countryside. I suppose that it was rather the result of circumstances such as my early life as a schoolboy", remembered the young man with the long silhouette. "I gradually developed the habit of retiring into my own world, where there was only danger and excitement." His student years did not last very long. In November 1918, he informed his father that he no longer wanted to stay at Marlborough College. This would upset his father no end. Francis: "I was supposed to go off to University to study to become an administrator in India. I quickly understood that it would be a mistake and that my life was elsewhere." Arriving in Wellington, New Zealand, at the end of an endless voyage in steerage aboard the Bremen, a German boat Gipsy Moth III, in 1960 captured during the war, Francis found his first job on a farm then another and another. and I almost lost my head. I even started to Tired of that, he became a woodsman, then get angry, if I was not recognised… I am fully gold-digger, then ended up in a coalmine. It ashamed of myself for this period of my life." was there that he celebrated his twenty-first Let’s just call it the stiff upper lip. This exisbirthday. And took the decision not to return tential conflict did not change his taste for to England before he had a wealth of 20,000 endeavour. As Lindbergh had done across the pounds. That was to take him longer than Atlantic, he wanted to be the first to cross planned. He sold books, then became an another sea: the Sea of Tasmania. Fitting out Gipsy Moth with floats, she became a flying estate agent. At the age of 26, he founded an boat and her pilot discovered the joys of airline company with his friend, Geoffrey. impromptu landings at sea. When he landed That was the birth of the Goodwyn-Chichester on the water, his first question was always: Aviation Company Ltd. His first flight was "where is the best place to shelter?" quite a revelation, but he was not a very gifSometimes things did not go smoothly, as on ted pilot. In 1929, he had earned enough Lord Howe Island, where he had to rebuild his money to go for lessons in ….England. By the plane. In Australia, he lost the tip of his finger end of the summer, he had finally obtained when his bi-plane was being taken to Sydney his pilot’s licence and a week later bought his on the deck of an aircraft carrier. The advenfirst aeroplane: a Gipsy Moth. Gipsy was the ture continued all the way to Japan, but was engine brand and Moth… the night flier. He to end there. Aiming to land in poor visibility, would have liked something bigger, but in the Gipsy Moth hit some telephone wires. The 1929, there was a crisis even in New Zealand bird fell to the ground and the pilot was and the debts were building up. seriously injured: 13 fractures and various injuries. Consequently, Francis went on board a steamer in Kobé to sail back to England. To Francis decided to fly off to Australia. The avoid getting bored, he set about writing a account of his voyage is full of tasty anecbook about his flight over Tasmania. dotes. He was to keep one eye on the clock. "If I hadn’t been held up in Tripoli, my flight from London to Darwin would have taken 19 days," or three days less than Hinkley, the One day, one of his close friends, Lord pilot, whose record he was trying to beat. Charles Kennedy, asked him to join him as a The voyage was certainly reported by many: crewman. Francis had very limited experience "I was surprised to see my story in the of sailing. He related this first experience papers. It had not crossed my mind before with disarming innocence. "Charles told me: setting out that it would build up my reputa"take the helm." We hoisted the sail and he tion and fame," said an astonished said to me: "luff." As the helm was the only Chichester. A little later, he was to write: thing within my grasp, I grabbed it and pulled "Thanks to this fame, I began seriously to towards me. "I told you to luff, you old idiot, think that I must have been quite some chap, cursed the skipper." I pushed it in the oppo- ©WesternMorningNews/AjaxNews/DPPI … and for endeavour The discovery of sailing site direction and that is how I learnt what to luff meant." That was not to put him off. Far from it. He even began to enjoy single-handed sailing: "I can still remember what a joy it was to try to appreciate the current to decide which was the best route and to find a channel, which was sufficiently deep to get the boat through." That was back in 1932 and Francis was 31 years old. Business took him back to the other hemisphere. He worked hard and looked forward to making his way back to England: this time on a plane and all by himself of course. However, it was a new plane, a second-hand Puss Moth, a largewinged monoplane and his new route was to take him over Siberia… As a new world war was looming on the horizon, our globe-trotter discovered a British lady. "I have around a hundred pounds in cash, fourteen thousand pounds of debts and a few trees. Will you marry me?", Francis asked the lady of his dreams on a railway platform. Back in Europe, Mr. Chichester with hardly a penny to his name set about looking for work, but with no luck. Thanks to his experience and his flying knowledge, he suggested the RAF set up a bomb squadron, -with solo pilots – aimed at destroying vital targets. The RAF did not accept his proposal and he landed in the offices of the Air Ministry, where he was to discover a new job: publishing maps. He drew up a game, called "Target: Pinhead"… "Or how to read a map at 0 altitude without reading it", according to the inventor. Later, he was to develop this sector, which allowed him to live comfortably, but he still did not have enough to buy the twin engine he was dreaming of to carry out his flying projects. He thus set about looking for a substitute to satisfy his thirst for adventure: a glider? Or Ocean Racing - december 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008

Cover
Edito
Contents
What they said
News
Portfolio - The news in the picture
Transat Jacques Vabre - Monohulls in power
In the words of the skipper - Michel Desjoyaux, A little bit more
Barcelona World Race - A couple sailing around the world
Imoca - Growth crisis in the Imoca class
Transat 6.5 - A whole series of records
Mini Class - Anatomy of a winner
Multihulls - What sort of trimarans tomorrow ?
Volvo Ocean Race - Second generation
Trials - Mach 45 : an unusual IRC
Match Racing - King Richard
Tactics - A good start
Portrait - Jacques Caraës
Lab - Tubular or wing mast ?
Forty years ago - Chichester, the lonely sea and the sky
Equipment - Shop window
New products - From the drawing board to the boatyard
Opinion - The mirage of worshipping technology

Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008