2018 marks the 50th anniversary of a race that made sailing history, the Golden Globe. On June 16, around 30 single-handed sailors will start the world regattum in England, which will take place under conditions that are as identical as possible to the original from '68. As part of this race, Robin Knox-Johnston managed the first one-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world. By the way, you can read a portrait of his victory yacht "Suhaili", which was recently restored, in YACHT 7/2017, the issue will be in stores from March 15th.
The race wrote many great stories, and they don't just tell of heroic deeds. The majority of the starters failed because of the size of the task - most spectacularly Donald Crowhurst, who only faked his participation in the race with fabricated reports and drifted into madness while drifting on the Atlantic. In any case, his ship was found unmanned.
A dropout became an idol
One of the most exciting stories of this race is the demolition of Bernard Moitessier. The Frenchman was already on his way back in the Atlantic, the destination was not far away, the success in sight, when he decided to sail to the South Seas, for the sake of his soul, as he said. His philosophy of sailing, which is behind this decision, has moved and inspired countless people.
In the coming year, however, not only the race should experience a revival, but Moitessier's legendary cruise too. The French-American Guy Bernardin has called for this trip, he will then be 74 years old. And he's not a gambler, he's already sailed around the world five times and passed Cape Horn six times.
Bernardin approaches the project in the spirit of the master: There are no rules, no news on the go, no prizes for the best. Rather, the trip should pay homage to the values that were important to Moitessier, primarily freedom on the sea. How he understood it is documented in his book about this trip, a classic in sailing literature: "Llongue route" (in German the book was published under the title "Der schenkkte Sieg").
Unlike the new edition of the Golden Globe on a fixed date, a time slot is provided for the start as before, between June 18 and September 30. You can find all further information here.