By Richard Crockett
I have always enjoyed following the Whitbread Round the World race, and later the Volvo Ocean Race, for no other reason than each event was enthralling, tough and relentlessly sailed by top-flight crew who always pushed barriers.
This 1995 report from the New York Times makes good reading, and not just because of the eye-catching headline.
The opening paragraph set the tone and read as follows:
“On Sept. 28, 15 well-appointed ocean-racing yachts ranging in size from 50 to 82 feet set sail from Portsmouth, England, for the first leg of the Whitbread Round-the-World Race. Cape Town was 7,000 miles away, and in this race, dubbed the “Sailor’s Everest,” it was just the beginning. During the next seven months, through fair weather and foul, this fleet manned by adventurers from 10 nations will call at Auckland, New Zealand, and Punta del Este, Uruguay, before returning to England sometime next May. By then, they will have logged more than27 000 miles.”
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: 1985 11 24 – stitched – 002935_Redacted – S&A – OCR