And then there was a Crowhurst. Much younger and totally incompetent.
Maybe only people UNDER 60 should be licensed!
Gordon


NE Sailboat wrote:
Sir Francis Chichester (September 17, 1901 - August 26, 1972),

When Sir Francis started his around the world cruise he was ::: 65 .. a
month shy of 66.

This was a man who was told he was dying in 1958!

But some fool in Charleston, SC tells us that old folks can't sail without
some type of license.



What a crock!



In 1958, he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His wife-to-be Sheila
put him on a strict diet (now considered to be a macrobiotic diet) and his
cancer went into remission. (Ironically, macrobiotic diet is today viewed as
detrimental in case of diagnosed cancer.)

In 1960, he entered and won the first single-handed transatlantic yacht
race, which he had co-founded, in the yacht Gipsy Moth III. He came second
in the second race four years later.

On August 27, 1966 he sailed his ketch Gipsy Moth IV from Plymouth, England
and returned there 226 days later on 28 May 1967, having circumnavigated the
globe, with one stop (in Sydney, Australia). By doing so, he became the
first person to circumnavigate the world solo from West to East via the
great capes. The voyage was also a race against the clock as Sir Francis
wanted to better the typical times achieved by the fastest fully crewed
clipper ships during the heyday of commercial sail in the 19th century, (the
first recorded solo circumnavigation of the globe was achieved by Joshua
Slocum in 1898 but it took him three years with numerous stops - Slocum also
took up the harder challenge of sailing east to west, against the prevailing
wind).

Chichester was knighted for this achievement. For the ceremony, the Queen
used a sword that had originally belonged to Sir Francis Drake (the first
Englishman to circumnavigate the globe). He was also honoured by a 1/9
postage stamp in 1967, which showed him aboard Gipsy Moth IV, even though he
was neither royal nor dead when the stamp was issued.

In 1970, Chichester attempted to sail 4,000 miles in 20 days, in Gypsy Moth
V; he failed by one day.

Francis Chichester died of lung cancer in Plymouth, Devon on August 26,
1972.

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
An announcement in regard to all the comments about old sailors in the
"What did these sailors do wrong?" thread below:

Twenty years from now, when Larry and some of you others are sitting in
your deck chairs on a cruise ship and you look out to see an old Endeavour
32 sailing along, that will be me.

--
Roger Long
(Born 1950)