Robin Knox-Johnston
Robin Knox-Johnston | |
---|---|
Born | William Robert Patrick Knox-Johnston 17 March 1939 |
Occupation | Sailor |
Known for | First single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe |
Spouses | Suzanne Singer
(m. 1962; div. 1967)
(m. 1972; died 2003) |
Children | 1 |
Website | robinknox-johnston |
Sir William Robert Patrick Knox-Johnston
Life
Early life
Knox-Johnston was born in Putney in London. His birth was registered in Wandsworth in 1939. He was the eldest child of David R Knox-Johnston (1910-1970) and Elizabeth Magill née Cree (1908-1977), who were married in Tring, in 1937.[1]
Knox-Johnston was educated at the
Due to a lack of money, he had to interrupt his voyage for work in South Africa as Master of a coaster and stevedoring and was only able to complete it in 1967. In 1968, he was one of nine sailors who attempted to achieve the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. He was the third sailor to start the race, and the only one to complete the voyage.[2]
Family
In early 1962, in Cambridge, he married Suzanne (Sue) Singer, whom he had known from the age of eight; they had one daughter, Sara, who was born in
On 14 June 1968, Knox-Johnston left Falmouth in his 32-foot (9.8-metre) boat Suhaili, one of the smallest boats to enter the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Despite losing his self-steering gear off Australia, he rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969, 20 days before his closest competitor Bernard Moitessier. Moitessier had sailed from Plymouth more than two months after Knox-Johnston, but he subsequently abandoned the race and instead sailed on to Tahiti. The other seven competitors dropped out at various stages, leaving Knox-Johnston to win the race and become officially the first person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handed on 22 April 1969, the day he returned to Falmouth. Knox-Johnston donated his prize money for fastest competitor, a sum of £5,000, to the family of Donald Crowhurst, another competitor in the race who had committed suicide after attempting to fake his round the world voyage.
In recognition of his achievement, he was created a
He later persuaded African-American sailor Bill Pinkney to follow the southern route around the Capes, rather than using the Panama and Suez canals to circumnavigate the Earth, and to become the first Black man to do so.[5]
Further exploits
In 1970 (with Leslie Williams) and in 1974 (with Gerry Boxall), Knox-Johnston won the two-handed Round Britain Race. Knox-Johnston, Williams and their crew, which included
Knox-Johnston and Blake (who acted as co-skippers) won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation in 1994. Their time was 74 days 22 hours 18 minutes and 22 seconds. It was their second attempt to win this prize after their first one in 1992 had to be aborted when their catamaran Enza hit an object which tore a hole in the starboard hull.
In 1992, he was awarded the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal by the
He was created a
In 1996, Knox-Johnston established the first Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and has since worked with the Clipper Ventures company as chairman to progress the race to higher levels every year.[10] It is perhaps his greatest achievement to have introduced so many people to competitive sailing via their involvement in Clipper Ventures.
He completed his second solo circumnavigation of the world in the yacht Saga Insurance on 4 May 2007, finishing in fourth place in the Velux 5 Oceans Race.[11] At 68, he was the oldest competitor in the race.[12]
In late 2008 and early 2009, Knox-Johnston took part in a BBC programme called Top Dogs: Adventures in War, Sea and Ice. The programme saw him unite with fellow British legends Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the adventurer, and John Simpson, the BBC world affairs editor. The team went on three trips, each experiencing each other's adventure field. The first episode, aired on 27 March 2009, saw Knox-Johnston, Fiennes and Simpson go on a potentially very dangerous news-gathering trip to Afghanistan. The team reported from the legendary Khyber Pass and infamous Tora Bora mountain complex. The three also undertook a voyage around Cape Horn and an expedition hauling sledges across the deep-frozen Frobisher Bay in the far north of Canada.
Having served two years as president of The Cruising Association, Knox-Johnston is now the association's patron. He is also a past-president of the Little Ship Club.[13] He is the current president of Liverpool Yacht Club.
In November 2014, Knox-Johnston, at age 75, finished the solo transatlantic race the Route du Rhum in third place in the Rhum class. He crossed the finish line on his Open 60 Grey Power at Pointe à Pitre at 16:52 hours local time/20:52 hours GMT after 20 days, 7 hours, 52 minutes and 22 seconds at sea.[14]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Knox-Johnston was one of several notable figures interviewed by The Guardian about their experiences with social isolation.[15]
In 2022, Suhaili's compass, which had been stolen soon after the completion of the 1969 circumnavigation, was left at the Holyhead Maritime Museum by the wife of the (now deceased) taker. After display at the museum, it will be returned to Knox-Johnston.[16]
Books
- A World of My Own. 1969, Cassell (reissued 2004 by Adlard Coles Nautical).
- A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols, 2001. HarperCollins Publishers.
- Cape Horn, a maritime adventure 1995. Hodder & Stoughton.
- The Columbus venture. 1991, BBC Books.
- Seamanship 1987. Hodder & Stoughton.
- Force of Nature with Kate Laven, 2007. Michael Joseph, London.
- Face to Face: Ocean Portraits, by ISBN 978-1-84486-124-8, Foreword. Conway and Polarworld.
- Running Free 2019. Simon & Schuster.
- Sea, Ice and Rock With Chris Bonington. Holder & Stoughton 1992
References
- ^ "FreeBMD Home Page". www.freebmd.org.uk.
- OCLC 76958.
- ^ Robin Knox Johnston (2007). Force of Nature.
- ^ "Sir Robin Knox-Johnston". Retrieved 2 June 2009.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
- ^ Knox-Johnston, Robin. "Races: 1977 - Whitbread". Robin Knox-Johnston. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
- ^ "Awards". Royal Institute of Navigation. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. "Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's CV". Archived from the original on 2 September 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ Newsletter of the Society for Nautical Research (9): 8. February 1993.
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(help) - ^ Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. "Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's Blog". Archived from the original on 23 August 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ "Sailing legend crosses the line". BBC. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ John Elliott (7 May 2006). "Old man of sea Knox-Johnston takes on world". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2 July 2006.
- ^ "Home". Little Ship Club. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ "Sir Robin Knox-Johnston third in Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe race". Clipperroundtheworld.com. 22 November 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ^ "Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's stolen compass handed in to museum". BBC News. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.