The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
by Tomalin, Nicholas and Hall, Ron
pub. by Hodder and Stoughton, London, UK 1970       isbn 0340129204- - 317 p.
pub in USA by Stein and Day NY, 1970 -isbn 0812813014     - 317 p. - Appedix I Crowhurst Navigation p.255     - -Appendix 2 Design of Teignmouth Electron p. 266     - - Appendix 3. p. 270 Teignmouth Electron - - 273 p. - map - - illustrated
Donald Crowhurst an informal inventor, registered to sail in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race of 1968-1969. This was to be a non-stop around the world race beginning and ending in England. The route took the boats from England around the southern tip of Africa, across the southern Ocean (Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean) around Cape Horn and back to England.
Crowhurst sailed in a multi-hull ketch named the Teignmouth Electron, a 40-foot (12 m) trimaran designed by Californian Arthur Piver. Crowhurst needed the prize money as he was in financial difficulties.
He sailed into the South Atlantic and from there jogged about sending false location statements, then sailed back north. Eventually he went quiet. His boat was found later in the Atlantic but he was missing. His written log book, found aboard his abandoned floating boat, showed that he was going insane. The best guess is that he jumped overboard and committed suicide.
Bernard Moitessier who would have easily won dropped out and sailed one and a half times around the world and settled in Polynesia. Robin Knox-Johnston in a moderately sized wooden boat prevailed and won the first OSTAR race. He was the only one who finished.
There is a lot of detail in this book. It is well written. Read this to begin to understand the difficulty of long distance voyaging sailing alone... if one is not mentally up to the task.
~ 1975 ~