Robin Knox-Johnston
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Sir William Robert Pat "Robin" Knox-Johnston, CBE, RD and bar (born 17 March 1939) was the first man to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe and was the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy (together with Sir Peter Blake).
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[edit] Life
[edit] Early life
He was born in Putney in London and grew up on The Wirral. From 1957 to 1965 he served in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy. In 1965 he sailed his Colin-Archer-design sloop Suhaili from Bombay to England. Due to a lack of money he had to interrupt his voyage for work in South Africa and was only able to complete it in 1967.[1]
[edit] Circumnavigation of the Earth
On 14 June 1968 the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race started at Falmouth. Robin Knox-Johnston rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969, 20 days before his closest competitor Bernard Moitessier who was the favourite to do the fastest circumnavigation, but Moitessier abandoned the race. Thus, Knox-Johnston became the first man to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handed on 22 April 1969, the day he returned to Falmouth. He donated his prize money to the family of Donald Crowhurst who had killed himself while taking part in the race.
[edit] Further Exploits
In 1970 (with Leslie Williams) and in 1974 (with Gerry Boxall) Robin Knox-Johnston won the two-handed Round Britain Race. Robin Knox-Johnston, Les Williams and their crew, which Peter Blake was also part of, took line honours of the 1971 Cape Town to Rio Race. Les Williams and Robin Knox-Johnston jointly skippered (Peter Blake crewmember again) a maxi yacht in the 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race. They took the line honours in the second and fourth leg, the ones which Robin Knox-Johnston skippered.[citation needed]
Robin Knox-Johnston and Peter Blake (who both acted as co-skippers) won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation in 1994. Their time was 74 days 22 hours 18 minutes and 22 seconds. It was their second attempt to win this prize after their first one in 1992 had to be aborted when their catamaran Enza hit an object which tore a hole in the starboard hull.
From 1992 to 2001 he was President of the Sail Training Association. During his tenure the money was collected to replace the STA’s vessels Sir Winston Churchill and Malcolm Miller by the new, larger brigs Prince William and Stavros S. Niarchos. He was trustee of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich from 1992 to 2002 and still is trustee of the National Maritime Museum – Cornwall at Falmouth, where Suhaili is berthed today. The yacht has been refitted and took part in the Round the Island Race in June 2005.
He completed his second solo circumnavigation of the world in the yacht SAGA Insurance on 4 May 2007, finishing in 4th place in the Velux 5 Oceans race.[2] At 68 he was the oldest competitor in the race.[3]
In 1996 Robin established the first Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and has since worked with the Clipper Ventures company as Chairman to progress the race to higher levels every year.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Robin Knox-Johnston (1969). A World of My Own. Cassell & Co Ltd. ISBN 0-304-93473-9. OCLC 76958.
- ^ "Sailing legend crosses the line", BBC, 2007-05-04. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ John Elliott. "Old man of sea Knox-Johnston takes on world", The Sunday Times, 2006-05-07. Retrieved on 2006-07-02.
- ^ Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's CV. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's Blog. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
