Former Pilot Wins Solo Atlantic Yacht Race

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 13

Former Pilot Wins Solo Atlantic Yacht Race

(Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 21. Francis Chichester, a 58-year-old London map publisher, flyer and expert navigator, today won the first one-man yacht race from England to New York.

Chichester completed the lonely voyage across the Atlantic late today. He sailed the 39ft black hulled yacht, Gypsy Moth HI. The solo race started on June 11 from Plymouth, England. ’ Chichester was well known as a pilot to New Zealanders before World War 11. In 1929, he was the second man to fly a seaplane solo from England to Australia. In 1931 he became the first to fly alone from Australia to Japan. He made the first east-west solo crossing of the Tasman Sea and was the first man to fly from Australia to Tasmania. In 1936 he flew from Sydney to London via Peking.

Jack Kingsley, of Central Press, London, says of Chichester: I have known Francis for 25 years or more, and his wife, Sheila, even longer. Small, frail, shortsighted, he looks as if he could not row a boat the length of the Serpentine without being exhausted. Actually he used to bathe in it early every morning in mid-winter, for his core is like the highest quality steel. But in the years I have known him, Francis Chichester has looked always as if a puff of wind would blow him overboard. He looked like that when, in the inter-war years, he made his solo flights. His victory over the Atlantic can be attributed to four qualities—indomitable courage, faith in himself, superb seamanship, and near-perfect navigation. Normally, Gipsy Moth 111 requires ■ crew of four. Francis started his single-handed voyage in a gale, and has had to battle strong head-winds all the way. He chose the northern route because it was the shortest, but is also the most deserted and dangerous. He took his dinnerjacket with him, and I am sure he changed into It every evening the weather made it possible. I can remember calling to see Francis one day before the war and finding him surrounded by strange-looking charts. He was probing into the neglected field of astral navigation, the science of finding the way across seas

and skies by the stars. The papers and articles he wrote on the subject were received with polite and sceptical smiles. But in the war his knowledge proved of inestimable value to our bomber crews. Francis, of course, joined the Royal Air Force. The irony of it all was that this experienced pilot was never allowed to make an operational flight His sight Was much below regulation standard. It was in the post-war period that Francis and Sheila became interested tn small-boat sailing, and later, when their son was old enough to walk, they began to live most of the summer afloat

Chichester started up on his own as a map-maker and publisher. Living in London, be kept himself fit by running in the parks and taking daily dips in the Serpentine. Like his wife and son, he is a strict vegetarian, and in treating his recent illness he used no conventional drugs. He has no faith in them, and not much in doctors and surgeons. But he does have a burning faith in the power of the human wilL—All Rights Reserved. ■*'