It is interesting to note that at the start of the race, where chaos had been predicted, not one untoward incident occurred which could be attributed to the size of the race, its organization, or the single-handedness of its entries. During the remainder of the race only two collisions with ships occurred, one of them not serious, one resulting in the sinking of the yacht and the subsequent rescue of her skipper. Another competitor, Nigel Lang in Galadriel, had the truly incredible experience of colliding with another single-handed yacht, not a competitor, hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic. Neither was seriously damaged.
Two lives were lost, the first ever in this event. It was inevitable that it would happen in one of these races, and now it has. Both men knew that it might, though neither probably expected it would happen to him. Both, in a sense, died defending the right of men to risk dying in adventurous living.
No one has proposed, with any effect, that motor racing be prohibited or that men stop trying to climb Everest. It is simply accepted that those who participate in these enterprises do so at their own risk, and good luck to them. Those of us who race single-handed ask no more than that. Leave us alone; ignore us, if you like, but let us get on with it.
Let us, as Jack Oddling-Smee, commodore of the Royal Western Yacht Club, has said, “enjoy and profit by what must surely be one of the last great freedoms granted to us in this ever contracting world.”
Interior Photo Credits
1, 2: Photograph by Ron Holland
3: Chart reproduced with permission of The Observer
4: Photograph courtesy of Cruising World
5: Photograph by Helen Simpson
6: Photograph by Johnathan Eastland
7: Photograph by Chris Smith/The Observer
8: Photograph by Chris Smith/The Observer
9: Photograph by Chris Smith/The Observer
10: Photograph by Chris Smith/The Observer
11: Photograph courtesy of Cruising World
12: Photograph by Alistair Black
13: Photograph by Rob Humphries