A Voyage For Madmen
by Peter Nichols
HarperCollins, 2001
Comments: I'll go ahead and reveal it up front: this is one of the best sailing books I've ever read. It chronicles the story of nine men engaged in the first race to circumnavigate the world in a sailboat, non-stop and alone, by the treacherous southern route. The Golden Globe race in 1968 was an attempt to resolve one of the last unaccomplished feats of transoceanic navigation. It would take the better part of a year to complete, with competitors departing separately over a period of several months, and prizes being awarded for both the first to finish and the fastest overall time.
As one might imagine for such an risky undertaking, the cast of characters included a variety of bold personalities. Each contestant was driven by his own complex set of personal motivations and over the course of the race was racked by the full range of emotional experience as the endeavor became more harrowing than they ever imagined. The author, an accomplished transoceanic sailor himself, adeptly frames the known facts with pertinent background information about oceanic weather, sailboat design, and sailing practices, as well as first-hand accounts from logbooks of the contestants themselves. He is credibly able to get inside the minds of these men and relate their thinking and experiences. The details surrounding the preparation of the diverse variety of boats involved, and why their captains were convinced of their seaworthiness, is a particularly revealing aspect of the story. In many cases the fortunes of these men were set before they ever departed, determined by critical decisions made about their craft in the planning stages.
The final outcome of the race was extraordinary and unexpected, with only one competitor actually completing the race, and others driven to some degree of personal enlightenment or tragic madness by the attempt. This is one of those survival stories where truth is far more compelling than fiction. If you've every had any interest at all in sailing or the sea, then this is a must read book.
Copy Notes: Hardback, first edition, map illustrations, black and white photographic plates
by Peter Nichols
HarperCollins, 2001
Comments: I'll go ahead and reveal it up front: this is one of the best sailing books I've ever read. It chronicles the story of nine men engaged in the first race to circumnavigate the world in a sailboat, non-stop and alone, by the treacherous southern route. The Golden Globe race in 1968 was an attempt to resolve one of the last unaccomplished feats of transoceanic navigation. It would take the better part of a year to complete, with competitors departing separately over a period of several months, and prizes being awarded for both the first to finish and the fastest overall time.
As one might imagine for such an risky undertaking, the cast of characters included a variety of bold personalities. Each contestant was driven by his own complex set of personal motivations and over the course of the race was racked by the full range of emotional experience as the endeavor became more harrowing than they ever imagined. The author, an accomplished transoceanic sailor himself, adeptly frames the known facts with pertinent background information about oceanic weather, sailboat design, and sailing practices, as well as first-hand accounts from logbooks of the contestants themselves. He is credibly able to get inside the minds of these men and relate their thinking and experiences. The details surrounding the preparation of the diverse variety of boats involved, and why their captains were convinced of their seaworthiness, is a particularly revealing aspect of the story. In many cases the fortunes of these men were set before they ever departed, determined by critical decisions made about their craft in the planning stages.
The final outcome of the race was extraordinary and unexpected, with only one competitor actually completing the race, and others driven to some degree of personal enlightenment or tragic madness by the attempt. This is one of those survival stories where truth is far more compelling than fiction. If you've every had any interest at all in sailing or the sea, then this is a must read book.
Copy Notes: Hardback, first edition, map illustrations, black and white photographic plates
