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As we're all whiling the hours away in lockdown, I thought that this youtube video of the first Whitbread Round the World race, posted today on a sailing forum, would be of interest to some of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBBm5Xa8DeA

It's a great little film, a real period piece. It also shows how much things have changed since 1973. The race was was a real Corinthian effort. So many of those guys went on to become legends of offshore sailing. You may have recognized Peter Blake on Burton Cutter. Les Williams, the skipper of Burton Cutter is someone I worked for when I was a student, back in the day. Classic Les that the boat was only half built before the start....

From a modern perspective, the matter-of-fact reporting of the lives lost is quite shocking. I loved some of the period commentary, such as "sailing is one of the only activities where you're allowed to drink and drive" and the gushing explanation of the amazing "hi-tech" nav aids. The footage of the partying in Rio reminded me of some of Clare Francis' husband Jacques Redon's tales of the goings on at that stopover - none of which are suitable for passing on in polite company.

I sailed across the Atlantic and down the Med, from Fort Lauderdale to Kos on Second Life in 1981. The film brought back some happy memories of that boat.

Thanks for posting Giles, I will be returning to that quite a few times I feel. It is interesting to see how yacht design has moved on. Unless I missed it, I don't think there was one hull with a double bed under the cockpit sole!!
Indeed, the predominate hull form reminded me of a Cobra I had back in the '80's. I wonder if we will be allowed to go sailing this year as there may be a chance of getting within 2mtrs of someone down at the yard.

The view from our window.



Somewhere in amongst those masts is mine. I can't even go to the port to check the mooring at the moment

As I recall, it took us 27 days to cross the Atlantic in 2004, I wonder if a round trip would be long enough to self isolate? 5 crew on a 46ft Bowman, we managed to keep a couple of meters apart most of the way as well!

On Second Life we did it from Fort Lauderdale to Gibraltar on a great north circle, a bit more than 4000NM. We passed within sight of Bermuda, but didn't stop as we had a fair wind and weren't short of anything. We did it in 21 days - an average of about 200 miles a day.

The Bowman 46 is such a pretty boat

Great trip, fond memories I hope.
When I was a lad my father fitted out one of the last hulls in our driveway, outside my bedroom window, after work almost non stop til 11pm at night, I still love the sound of power tools!!

You are right about the period piece but not just the yachts - the commentary in clipped Queens English too.

Wasnt the three masted boat the Peter Blake one?

The best display I saw of the old way of doing things was when the J yachts raced several years off the Royal Cornwall. I was a member at the time and my own boat was moored there so I could hang off the end of the start line and watch them go. No guard rails, huge crews and even bigger sails. Some came with a mother ship for the crew - huge motor boats. Incredibly elegant but on some point of sail not a huge amount faster than my 35 footer.

I'll try and dig out some photos.

Nope. That looks like Vendredi 13, which wasn't in the race, probably just there to watch the start. She's 128' long. The longest boat in the race was Great Britain II at 77 ft.

Peter Blake was most definitely on Burton Cutter, as you can see in the on-board footage. He was one of the watch leaders. He really was a genuinely lovely bloke. I had the pleasure of enjoying a beer or two with him when I was working for Les Williams. His murder in Brazil was too awful.

Here's the crew list

Burton Cutter
David Alan Williams, Sid Berkeley, Peter Blake, Barry Buchanan, Marco Chiara, Andrew Culley, Chris Edwards, Bill Elgie, Colin Forbes, Tom W. Moore, Jacques Redon, Paul Rosser, Nick Rowe, Alan Smith, John Tanner, Ricardo Vilarosa, Leslie Williams

Oh, and I guess one could maybe call your Starlight 35 a Bowman, Howard. IIRC, Rival Bowman bought the Starlight 35 and 39 moulds when Sadler went tits up.