It lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and non-stop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done. In 1968, nine men - six Englishmen, two Frenchmen and an Italian - set out to try, a race born of coincidence of their timing. One didn't even know how to sail. They had more in common with Captain Cook or Ferdinand Magellan than with the high-tech, cyber-fed sailors of today, a mere thirty years later. It was not the sea or the weather that determined the nature of their voyages but the men they were, and they were as different from one another as Scott from Amundsen. Only one of the nine crossed the finishing line after ten months at sea. The rest encountered despair, sublimity, madness and death.
In the psychedelic summer of 1968, as Apollo 8 soared toward the moon and the Democratic Convention crashed in Chicago, nine men tried finally to accomplish the sailor's age-old ultimate goal: a solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the world. Nichols (Sea Change) deftly introduces myriad aspects of a voyage that promised "dubious, unquantifiable" rewards. He insightfully contextualizes the endeavor as an offshoot of Sir Francis Chichester's famous 1967 solo circumnavigation (with one stop), which represented to England a "longed-for" heroism. Detailing the British media's successful exploitation of the so-called race, he approaches the voyage as the remarkable result of nine men wishing to outdo Chichester. Nichols painstakingly describes the enormous difficulty of solo navigation in the pre-global positioning system of the 1960s. These "hardcase egomaniacs driven by complex desires and vainglory to attempt an extreme, life-threatening endeavor" used only rudimentary equipment and their wits. Nichols is at his liveliest when describing the only two participants who "were really happy aboard their boats": the French-Asian Bernard Moitessier, the most skilled sailor, whose mystical seamanship brings surprises, and the British Robin Knox-Johnson, who was energized during his journey by the memory of "the Elizabethan sea heroes of his youth." Nichols also delivers a compelling portrait of English Donald Crowhurst, an electronics engineer whose "supercharged personality" wreaked havoc on the entire race. While Nichols's pace is neither breakneck nor suspenseful, his careful details and psychological insight make for a riveting account of the triumphant human spirit. 16-page photo insert, 8 maps. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In 1968 there remained one major nautical challenge yet to be accomplished: sailing single-handedly nonstop around the world. Nine men set out to achieve it in one of the most widely publicized yacht races. What could possess nine otherwise sane and responsible men to risk their lives, careers, and the well-being of their families by undertaking such a reckless endeavor? Nichols introduces the reader to the contestants, giving a vivid portrayal of the men attempting the feat. He expertly tells their individual stories in great detail: why they entered the race, what they had staked on winning, and their struggles at sea. He weaves their story together to form a comprehensive account of the race that reads like a suspense novel. Readers will eagerly turn the pages to discover how some were defeated by the ocean or the race's harsh rules and the lengths to which one contestant went to be declared the winner. An interesting slice of history that makes for a worthy seagoing adventure story. --Gavin Quinn
Kirkus Book Review
A well-detailed, fast-paced chronicle of the Sunday Times of Londons 1968 Golden Globe Race, in which nine men attempted to sail nonstop around the world alone. Writing with the authority of an experienced sailor, author Nichols (Sea Change, 1997) chronicles each competitors boatbuilding obstacles and progress at sea, and he attempts to delve into the psyches of these sea-obsessed men by drawing on their personal logs. He reveals the shocking risks these men takeseparation from family, loneliness, bankruptcy, and deathfor Golden Globe glory. His charactersnumerous and difficult to differentiateinclude Bernard Moitessier (a melodramatic French yoga guru), Nigel Tetley (a Royal Navy lieutenant commander who is civilized to a fault), Chay Blyth (a competitive he-man), and Donald Crowhurst (a failed businessman). Thoroughly versed in boatbuilding, Nichols foreshadows the grim events that unfold in the water by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each boat. The participants motives are mixed: while some were enticed by prize money or patriotism, others had more intriguing incentives. Moitessier, for example, felt a need to discover his inner-self in solitude, and he resented the Sunday Times for intruding on his spiritual journey. Blyth, who had never sailed before, simply wanted to beat his former transatlantic rowing partner, who happened to be competing that year. As these men made their journeys with only radios to keep them company, Nichols shows us what the combination of isolation, malfunctioning boats, and fear of drowning can do to a man. The most interesting story is Crowhursts: Convinced that he was going to win the prize money, he used his familys business and home as collateral for his backers, supplied the press with false data, and led the public to believe that he was some 4,000 miles closer to the finish than he really was. Laced with suspense, but not exactly another Perfect Storm, this will appeal more to real sailors than armchair salts. Author tour
Author notes provided by Syndetics
Peter Nichols was born in 1950 in New York City. He has worked in advertising and as a screenwriter, and a shepherd in Wales, and he has sailed alone across the Atlantic. He divides his time between Europe and the United States. Peter Nichols is the author of the national bestseller A Voyage for Madmen and two other books, Sea Change: Alone Across the Atlantic in a Wooden Boat, a memoir, and the novel Voyage to the North Star. He has taught creative writing at NYU in Paris and Georgetown University, and presently teaches at Bowdoin College. He is lives in Maine with his wife and son.