Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008 - (Page 72)

FORTY 50 ANS DEPUIS YEARS AGO better still a sailboat, which he could use with his family. Francis got his hands on a small yacht that he called Gipsy Moth II : 8m long, just enough to race in the RORC. Without much success it must be said. Having received approval from his wife, he asked Robert Clark, a fashionable naval architect at the time to come up with the design for Gipsy Moth III, which would be built in Ireland in the Arklow yard. However, Francis was hardly able to visit the yard because of some serious health problems: pleurisy, an abcess on the lung, a cancer… so the story went in England. Fortunately, a chance meeting with Professor Mattei in France would reassure him and his prescriptions would rapidly get him back on his feet. up in Plymouth on that occasion in June 1960. Blondie and his Jester, David Lewis on board Cardinal Virtue, Val Howells on board Eira and the Frenchman, Jean Lacombe on his little Golif, which was late setting out. Chichester had the largest boat and won the race, which at that time finished in New York. On the eve of his arrival, the yachtsman gave his boat a thorough clean, as was the custom. In so doing, he discovered that his green velvet dinner jacket - "that I had hoped to put on one evening, when I was having dinner on board" - was completely mildew and full of holes, where it had been rubbing against the sides of the boat. The cruel sea! Then there was a painful calm to get through a few miles before the finishing line: "at 13h 30, as I was about to have lunch, a light breeze suddenly appeared and I had to go without eating for twelve and a half hours, until Gipsy Moth picked up the wind again." Hasler, in second place finished eight days later. Four years later, the transatlantic race had grown in size: there were fifteen yachts at the start, and multihulls started to appear. As for Chichester, he had been working on designs for a new yacht "which could sail twenty miles more per day than Gipsy Moth III. When I saw one of the French yachts lining up in Plymouth for the start looked exactly like my future boat, I understood that it was going to be a very tight race". The yacht with a black hull was called Pen Duick II and demolished the heavy old Gipsy. The race finished in Newport and not in New York and the weather was fine right across the Atlantic. On the 27th day of sailing, Francis heard on the BBC that Tabarly had crossed the finish. At that moment, he still had some 268 miles to sail in less than two days and nineteen hours, if he wanted to improve on his previous record. Which he managed to do with a just a few minutes to spare. With his cap down over his eyes as always, and a mischievous look in his eyes behind his thick lenses, the Englishman congratulated the French vessel on her success. "It was for me a great privilege to race against a great man like Eric and a boat like Pen Duick II". He added with a touch of British humour: "The advantage in finishing second was that I could show off my French accent." The gentleman had his green dinner jacket repaired in the hope of wearing it again for the third edition of the transatlantic race in 1968. However, fate took over and his programme changed, and the precious jacket set sail again earlier than planned on Gipsy Moth IV: an Illingworth and Primrose design measuring 53 feet, and which was designed to sail around the world in the southern seas. At the age of 65, Captain Chichester took up a new challenge. Or more precisely he returned to a challenge started 35 years earlier: sailing to Sydney from England. The first time was by plane! In 1966, he left Plymouth alone at the helm of his yacht and headed straight for the other side of the world attempting to set a record for the route. He won his bet and made it back too. It was a triumph. A legendary sailor knighted by the Queen, a successful author, the round the world yachtsman could have taken a quiet retirement, but he had one more project up his sleeve: he wanted to have Gipsy Moth V built. Measuring 17 m, she was designed to regain control of the Atlantic crossing. Too small to win, but too big to be sailed single-handed by a sick man, the boat would not achieve her goal. "Right up until the end of his life, Chichester will have been pushed along by this incredible energy, not knowing the meaning of the word, reasonable," proclaimed Alain Gliksman. The yacht with a black hull was called Pen Duick II The green dinner jacket The initial phase with Gipsy Moth III did not go very smoothly. The boat was big enough for one man alone. It had a very high freeboard, weighed thirteen tonnes and had a draught of 2 metres: which led him to run aground on a number of occasions. To enable the boat to be sailed without him having to stay at the helm, the owner – skipper developed and made a clever speed regulator that he called Miranda. Setting sail on the first transatlantic race imagined by Blondie Hasler on the famous principle of "one man, one boat and the Atlantic", five yachtsmen lined Gipsy Moth IV in 2005 Patrice Carpentier Bibliography: - The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester (Published by Hodder & Stoughton) - *Single-handed yachting, Alain Gliksman-Marc Berthier (Published by EMOM) - Gipsy Moth Circles the World (Published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd) CourseAuLarge - décembre 2007 © G. Blake/DPPI

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