The Press MONDAY, MAY 29, 1967 “It’s The Effort That Counts”

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31381, 29 May 1967, Page 12

The Press MONDAY, MAY 29, 1967 “It’s The Effort That Counts”

When he sailed from Plymouth for Sydney in a bid to match or better the average passage times of the great clipper ships to and from Australia, Francis Chichester said he was tackling what he considered “ the greatest sail left in the world His route, out and return,' required him to round three capes, famous or notorious, whichever adjective may be preferred, in the annals of sailing—Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. This task, in his view, presented “the most thrilling challenge left for a “ sailing man Now, nine months later, the adventure is all but over; and if the lone sailor did not better any records his achievement loses no merit on that account It is easy to deduce from Chichester’s writings that the Hom in particular had for him a special significance, as possibly the final challenge in his long and adventurous life. The weather for his west-to-east passage of the Hom lived reasonably up to reputation. It was neither too easy, which would have been in the nature of anti-climax, nor too savage. Yet there were danger and struggle enough. A message from Chichester on March 21 said bluntly that conditions had been bad; that he had had two meals in two days; that he had been running before gale seas which five times filled Gipsy Moth’s cockpit: that it was a test of nerves “sailing into a black “ night which you know is stuffed with rocky islands The landsman may well concur. Yet of what use is it to ask why men take such appalling risks, or what is gained when success has been won? The single-handed sailor presumably faces sea hazards in much the same mood as climbers challenge forbidding peaks—because they are there. In the light of Chichester’s record over a long period of years, as aviator and yachtsman, it may be supposed that the blood of Raleigh and Grenville running in his veins had to assert itself. It has often been argued that it is always the individualists who are celebrated and that history’s limbo is reserved for the sceptics and the scoffers. Chichester’s qualities, as the welcome prepared for him amply confirms, are widely recognised. A place has been made for him in the knightly company to which he belongs. He need not be expected to make any fuss about his remarkable round voyage. He has expressed his philosophy: “It’s always the same with any big effort. If you “ succeed it seems slack at the time. You have made “so much effort that success in the end means “ nothing. It’s the effort that counts, not the success