Bøker av Francis Chichester

In June 1962 Francis Chichester set out from Plymouth once again to cross the Atlantic single-handed in his 13-ton yacht, Gipsy Moth III, in an attempt to beat the 40-day record he set up himself in 1960. He succeeded, and knocked nearly a week off his previous time. Chichester also made history on his voyage by keeping in daily contact with Britain by means of a small battery-operated radio-telephone which enabled The Guardian, the sponsors of the voyage, to publish daily extracts from his log. Edited by The Guardian's Yachting Editor, J. R. L. Anderson, this book, Chichester's own day-by-day narrative of that adventurous journey, threatened by gales, icebergs and fog, is the drama of one man fighting his way alone across the North Atlantic. It is one of the great stories of the sea. 'a magnificent achievement' Guardian 'hard to put down' Times Literary Supplement 'good-natured, informal and totally unpretentious book' Observer

A brave man in a small boat alone on a big sea . . .Sir Francis Chichester was a courageous explorer and gifted navigator. Six years before his epic solo voyage around the world in Gipsy Moth IV, so vividly captured in Gipsy Moth Circles the World, and at the age of 59, Chichester took part in the 1960 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in Gipsy Moth III. During the forty days the voyage took, Chichester kept a diary in which he shared his fears and moments of exhilaration. The result is both a practical tale about Gipsy Moth III's sailing victory and a day-by-day sharing of adventure by her skipper.

There was in Sir Francis Chichester a restless spirit never satisfied with his achievements. Throughout his adventurous life this quiet Englishman has sought to challenge odds that other, younger, stronger men declared insuperable. As a pilot, as a yachtsman, as a navigator, even as a man who broke the grip of cancer, Sir Francis was always a pioneer. Where he led, others followed: but when he triumphed, he at once sought a new and greater challenge.This is a book about such a challenge. With the feasibility of long-distance voyages proven beyond doubt - not least by his own remarkable circumnavigation in 1966 - Sir Francis turned at once to the next great barrier facing the single-hander, the 'speed barrier', setting himself the staggering target of sailing 4,000 miles between two fixed points on the earth's surface in 20 days - an average of 200 miles a day whatever the wind, whatever the weather.The Romantic Challenge tells of the planning, the calculations and the sheer hard work that in January 1971 led him and Gipsy Moth V to their 'starting line' for a race which is the single-hander's '4-Minute Mile' and Marathon, combined in one gruelling, non-stop, murderous ocean race.

From time immemorial, few narrative genres have had the power to so stir the emotions or captivate the imagination as the true account of a lone adventurer's triumph over the titanic forces of nature. Among the handful of such tales to emerge in the twentieth century, one of the most enduring surely must be Sir Francis Chichester's account of his solitary, nine-month journey around the world in his 53-foot ketch Gipsy Moth IV. The story of how the sixty-five-year-old navigator singlehandedly circumnavigated the globe, the whole way battling hostile seas as well as his boat's numerous design flaws, is a tale of superhuman tenacity and endurance to be read and reread by sailors and armchair adventurers alike. First published in 1967, just months after the completion of Chichester's historic journey, Gipsy Moth Circles the World was an instant international best-seller. It inspired the first solo around-the-world race and remains a timeless testament to the spirit of adventure. Francis Chichester's 1967 singlehanded circumnavigation set a blazing record for speed. He completed the voyage with just one stop and 226 days at sea. It was an amazing performance; that he was sixty-five years old made it the more so. Chichester then sat down to write one of the great narratives of modern voyaging.

The story of Sir Francis Chichester's extraordinary journey from New Zealand to Australia

From the author of Gipsy Moth Circles the World

From the author of Gipsy Moth Circles The World