Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
The yachting world is littered with adventurous personalities, but perhaps one of the most colourful of all was Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith.
The story of Thomas Sopwith is an inspiration to all, for this remarkable Englishman who loved the sea and skies with such passion was not only an outstanding seaman, but his flair and forceful personality also made him one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his time. Most people will remember him as one of the greatest aviation pioneers of all time, producing the World War 1 classics, the Sopwith Camel, the Sopwith Pup and the Hurricane in World War ll. In fact in all three of Britain’s wars – the two world wars and the Falklands war – Sopwith’s companies produced the country’s finest fighter aircraft.
But in the sailing fraternity, he more likely will be remembered as the only Englishmen to date to have almost won the America’s Cup. In fact if it had not been for some controversial decisions by the New York Yacht Club (so what’s new?) Sopwith would most probably have gone down in history as the first helmsman to have achieved the “impossible”.
This is another delightful story of a man from a bygone era.
READ IT HERE: Pages from 1989 10 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
