BRITISH STEEL
was only doing it to get attention. This talk could not have been easy for his wife, then looking after the couple’s young daughter. Even the builders of the yacht doubted the project’s chances: Bob and his team-mates were going to weld a box onto the hull into which they would put small toys owned by their children. They hoped they could retrieve the toys and give their children a keepsake that had been ‘around the world’. But they discussed the plan and decided he’d never make it, so didn’t bother!
With these endorsements
ringing in his ears, Blyth got ready to leave. Leaving the Solent on October
, Blyth’s journey did not get off to a good start: the yacht was rammed by a boat in the flotilla of vessels that came out to see him off!
18th
But he was soon on his way and all seemed to be going well, until he was off South America and was caught in a strong wind – the rigging mechanism jammed leaving him with full sail in a gale. He climbed the mast to free the mechanism, risking life and limb, and from there it was not an easy trip. a force 9 gale in the Pacific
knocked him into treacherous ice fields, damaged his self-steering system beyond repair and left him with a severe head injury. On the rest of the journey, he encountered many storms that bent the mast and drove him again massively off course. He later said if the boat had not been steel hulled and ‘built like a submarine’ he would have been in much more trouble. As it was he was forced to remain at the tiller for more than 20 hours at a time to stay safe. But he made it home to South- ampton on August 2nd
– with a
boat that was in pristine condition according to reports at the time after 292 days at sea. In a stroke of good luck, Blyth sailed home just in time for the Cowes Week regatta and was welcomed as a conquering
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81
hero. As he stepped off the boat he was greeted personally by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Anne and Prime Minister Edward Heath. Blyth was hailed as a sailing giant – the journey was described by The Times
as, “The most outstanding passage ever made by one man alone”, under the headline “Boat of Steel - Man of Iron”. He was given the boat as a gift, but it was later sold and passed through a number of owners, including fellow adventurer Pete Goss. It is now moored on the river Dart again, painted blue, opposite the double steps of the Embankment. Blyth made his home for a time in Kingswear, and helped that other great Dart-based Sailor Naomi James, by lending her a boat for her circumnavigation in 1978.• by Phil Scoble
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