Easier than ever?
Brian Hancock looks at the question of which is tougher: this year’s singlehanded Golden Globe Race around the world or the original back in 1968/9. The answer may be less obvious than you think…
The Golden Globe Race starts this summer. It will celebrate the 50th anniver- sary of the very first singlehanded around- the-world race which took place in 1968. Back then the event was called the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race because it was The Sunday Times newspaper that had come up with the idea of a solo, non-stop race around the world. I guess, like most media outlets, they were looking for content and a good story and the race did not disappoint – that’s an understatement. The idea behind the upcoming race is to
recreate the original as closely as possible. In other words, if you couldn’t get it in 1968, you can’t have it now. Or, more specifically, as the race website states, ‘If it was not on Suhaili then you cannot use it.’ Suhaili being the yacht that won the very first race. That means no GPS, no auto - pilot, no fancy instruments and definitely no iPad loaded with books and the latest blockbuster movies. Books are allowed; the print and paper variety.
42 SEAHORSE So this all got me thinking. Do you
think that the race back then was tougher than the upcoming one, or vice versa? I am fairly certain that most people will feel that the original was the tougher of the two, but I am not so sure about that. Let me explain. For your boat you have
to choose something that’s 32-36ft long, with a full-length keel with the rudder at its aft end. OK, I am pretty sure the newer boats are better designed and probably better built so our modern-day adventurers will have an advantage there. Since you can’t get the kind of clothing
they had back then you can take advan- tage of the latest soft-pile woolly undies and breathable foul-weather gear. No leaky boots and scratchy wool sweaters for them so place a second tick in the ‘easier this time’ column… But not so fast. I think that the upcom-
ing race is going to be a lot tougher than the original event and there is a simple reason for this. These modern-day sailors know better; and that’s going to make it a more difficult challenge. I once saw a Facebook post where
someone posed a challenge. Not sure if it was real or made up but it doesn’t matter, the point remains the same. The challenge read: ‘Would you live in a house in the woods for a week without any electronic devices in return for $2,000?’ Ninety-nine per cent of those who responded said they would not, that they could not. By the way
I was one of the one per cent who thought it was a great idea, with or without the money, but that’s just me. I was also the one who coined the phrase, ‘You need an IQ less than the length of your boat if you plan to sail around the world alone.’ Fifty years ago Robin Knox-Johnston
aboard Suhaili, the only finisher among the nine that started, would not have known that in the future you could simply push a button on a device and it would immedi- ately tell you precisely, to the nearest inch, where on the planet you were located. Nope, Robin used a sextant and sight- reduction tables to figure out where he was. He needed three Lines of Position (LOPs) to form a cocked hat, or triangle, which gave him an idea of where he was. He was somewhere inside the triangle. Three different times he had to bring the
sun down to the horizon, note the time, check the tables and mark the chart. For Robin that was just fine, that’s how things were done. He didn’t know any better. There weren’t satellites orbiting in space
to help with navigation. On the days when there was no sun, and I am sure there were plenty, he had to dead-reckon his way taking into account his boat speed, the various currents and other vagaries that could influence his position, and guess where he was. Today’s sailors know about GPS, most
have probably never used a sextant for navigating, and they know that balancing
SPORTSHOOT/PPL
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