Gipsy Moth IV - 1967 Voyage

1967 Voyage

Launched in March 1967, she is 38 ft 6 in (11.73 m) on the waterline and 53 feet (16 m) overall, with a hull constructed of cold-moulded Honduras mahogany. Ketch rigged, she has a sail area of 854 sq ft (79.3 m2), extendable with a spinnaker to over 1,500 sq ft (140 m2).

Gipsy Moth IV set out from Plymouth on 27 August 1966 with 64-year-old Sir Francis at the helm. This was not uneventful, and Chichester later recalled three moments where he noted that the trip was almost over. The first was when part of the frame holding the wind vane self-steering failed, when still 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from Sydney. Not wanting to put in to Fremantle, Western Australia, Chichester spent three days balancing sails and experimenting with shock-cord lines on the tiller, once again getting the boat to hold a course to enable her to cover 160 miles (260 km) a day.

An exhausted Chichester entered Sydney harbour for a stopover 107 days later. He enlisted the help of America's Cup designer Warwick Hood, who added a piece to the boat's keel to provide Gipsy Moth IV with better directional stability to stop her broaching, but the modification did nothing to improve her stability.

One day out on the return trip via Cape Horn, the boat was rolled in a 140-degree capsize. Chichester calculated the angle by measuring the mark on the cabin roof made by a wine bottle. He commented in his diary and in a later interview with Time magazine that he knew she would self-right as she was designed to, but was concerned by the incident as this was a light storm and he still had to pass Cape Horn, where the third and most significant event of the voyage would occur:

"The waves were tremendous. They varied each time, but all were like great sloping walls towering behind you. The kind I liked least was like a great bank of gray-green earth 50' (15 m) high and very steep. Image yourself at the bottom of one. My cockpit was filled five times and once it took more than 15 minutes to drain. My wind-reading machine stopped recording at 60 knots. My self-steering could not cope with the buffeting....I had a feeling of helplessness."

Just as he thought all hope was lost and he was alone, on exiting the cockpit one day he was followed by the British Antarctic Survey vessel HMS Protector (A146), and later the same day a Royal Air Force plane broke through the clouds. On 28 May 1967 having logged 28,500 miles (45,900 km) in just 274 days (226 days actual sailing time), the voyage claimed the following records:

• Fastest voyage around the world by any small vessel
• Longest non stop passage that had been made by a small sailing vessel (15,000 miles (24,000 km))
• More than twice the distance of the previous longest passage by a singlehander
• Twice broke the record for a singlehander's week's run by more than 100 miles (160 km)
• Established a record for singlehanded speed by sailing 1,400 miles (2,300 km) in 8 days

In his book The Circumnavigators Don Holm describes Gipsy Moth IV as "perhaps one of the worst racing yachts ever built", while Chichester commented:

"Now that I have finished, I don't know what will become of Gipsy Moth IV. I only own the stern while my cousin owns two thirds. My part, I would sell any day. It would be better if about a third were sawn off. The boat was too big for me. Gipsy Moth IV has no sentimental value for me at all. She is cantankerous and difficult and needs a crew of three - a man to navigate, an elephant to move the tiller and a 3'6" (1.1 m) chimpanzee with arms 8' (2.4 m) long to get about below and work some of the gear."