Golden Globe
Round the World
Sailing Race
On May 28, 1967, Francis Chichester returned to England after sailing single-handed around the world in nine months and one day. He was knighted shortly afterward.
Chichester's feat inspired several other sailors to think, not only about single-handed round-the-world voyages, but about doing it non-stop. (Chichester had put in at Sydney, Australia.)
The Sunday Times of London, which had gained a lot of publicity by sponsoring Chichester's voyage, decide to turn the whole thing into a race. On March 17, 1968, the newspaper announced that it was offering two prizes: The Golden Globe, to the first sailor to complete the single-handed circumnavigation, and a £5,000 prize for the person who did in the shortest time. Contestants would be required to start, from England, between June 1 and October 31.
There were nine entrants. John Ridgway was the first to sail, on June 1. Chay Blyth set out a week later and Robin Knox-Johnston sailed on June 14. The six others, with their departure dates, were Bernard Moitessier and Loïck Fougeron, both of France, August 22; Bill King, August 24; Nigel Tetley, September 16; Donald Crowhurst and Alex Carozzo of Italy, October 31.
By then, Ridgeway and Blyth were already out of the race. Carozzo, King, and Fougeron were all forced to retire in November. That left four and, months later, led to one of the strangest finishes that any kind of race has ever had.
Moitessier, who had rounded Cape Horn back into the Atlantic and stood a good chance of winning the cash prize for the fastest voyage, decided that the race was too materialistic. He announced on March 18, 1969, that he was going to keep sailing on to Tahiti, another two-thirds of the way around the world.
On April 22, Knox-Johnston arrived in Falmouth, winning the Golden Globe. But the two remaining sailors, Tetley and Crowhurst, were still in the running for the £5,000 prize, since they'd begun considerably later than Knox-Johnston.
It appeared to be a close race between the two. Tetley rounded Cape Horn on March 18, the very day Moitessier announced that he was going on to Tahiti. On April 10, Crowhurst reported that he was nearing Cape Horn. Since he had sailed about six weeks later than Tetley, that meant that he had a good chance to win the prize.
Tetley then began pushing his boat beyond what it could take and she sank in a storm near the Azores on May 21.
That left Crowhurst. Only he knew that he had spent the entire seven months lurking in the Atlantic and keeping a fake log that would seem to show that he had sailed around the world. Realizing that his fraud would be exposed by intensive scrutiny of his phony log, Crowhurst began to dally in his journey north. He abandoned the log and began writing an essay that pretty clearly indicated madness. On July 1, he added a suicide note to his essay and jumped overboard.
Since no other entrant finished, Knox-Johnston won the prize. He donated the £5,000 that had been established for Crowhurst's wife and children.
Despite the bizarre and tragic circumstances surrounding the Golden Globe race, it helped pave the way for other round-the-world races, including the BOC Challenge (now the VELUX 5 Oceans), the Global Challenge, the Whitbread (now the Volvo), and the Vendée Globe.