Yacht To Follow Clipper Route

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 10

Yacht To Follow Clipper Route

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 25. Mr Francis Chichester, aged 64, a pre-war aviator and a post-war sailor, will leave England next August alone in a 53ft. yacht to follow the clipper ship route to Australia.

The story, carried by most London newspapers, said Mr Chichester, in his yacht Gypsy Moth IV, would leave Plymouth and sail for Sydney via the Cape of Good Hope. His aim, he said, was to rival the speed of the old sailing clipper ships and reach Sydney in 100 days. Then, he said, he planned to sail back around Cape Horn, thus girdling the world with another 100-day single handed trip. He would spend about 30 days in Sydney between voyages “enjoying the fleshpots and that sort of thing.” If he completed the 28,500 mile trip in 200 sailing days, he would rival the huge grain clippers with their crews of about 30 and create entirely new standards of speed for single handed sailing. Only four yachtsmen have rounded Cape Horn unscathed, and only eight yachts altogether—including two which were lost.

Mr Chichester said he had been planning the trip for more than two years. More than half of his journey will take place along the latitudes of the “Roaring Forties.” Notorious for the size of their waves and the velocity of their winds. To achieve his target, he must average more than 137 miles a da„ something never before attained by a singlehander over such a long distance. One of the most famous of all clippers, the Cutty Sark, had the fastest time for the Sydney-England voyage of 72 days. The average for the sailing ships which plied the clipper route until 1927 was more than 100 days.