Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
It’s very easy to forget just how excited yachties and the public were about the first Rio Race, and how owners and crew faced the “race against time syndrome” to make the start line in time.
Durban was no different as today’s report shows, and also reveals how slowly money was being collected by the Natal Ocean Racing Foundation (NORF) to pay for the ‘Mercury’, the yacht they had commissioned specially for the race. Theirs was not the only syndicate formed to acquire a yacht which faced a cash crisis.
I found the sidebar titled “Old Sea-dog Lends His Chronometer” interesting as Captain R. H. Houghton, a spritely, white-bearded old sea-dog, lent his valuable, hand-made chronometer to the yacht Mercury for the Cape to Rio race.
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: 1970 10 27 – Rio 1971 – S&A – Don Pfotenhauer Collection – stitched final_Redacted – OCR 2
