Members of Chichester Probus Club heard about the challenge at their monthly lunch meeting at Crouchers recently (February 13).
The speaker was Ian Worley, who learned to sail as a boy growing up in West Wittering. He said his grandfather and father had sailed round the world and he wanted to keep up the tradition.
The advertisement he answered was to join the 1977-8 crew of Great Britain II which had just won the Financial Times Clipper Race and fastest overall in the Round the World Yacht Race. The total cost per crew member would be £4,080. His bid was successful and he was appointed as a watch leader.
A 78ft two-mast Petric, Ian said that she was a strong boat taking part in her third circumnavigation. There were four legs: Portsmouth to Cape Town, Cape Town across the Southern Ocean to Auckland, Auckland to Rio de Janiero, and Rio to Portsmouth. The crew numbered 17, and included one woman.
Ian had an additional role as photographer, filming for the BBC sorts programme Grandstand. At each stop he would hand over his film and be given a new supply. At the end of the voyage he was given all the film back, then going out as a film on general release. Clips enhanced a fascinating talk.
He said that he first risk the crew faced was at the start. They had to navigate through hundreds of small boats which had gathered at Portsmouth to see them off.
There were three four-hour watches, cookers on gimbles, tinned not dried food as everything became damp or wet. Fresh water was precious so sea water was used for washing. Ropes and sails were massive and heavy. It took six people to manhandle a spinnaker through the hatch.
Spinnakers would frequently be ripped by the wind and have to be mended, one operating the sewing machine and others feeding the sail through. Many were beyond repair and had to be replaced.
The sea was vast and the weather could be extremely hot. They went through the Doldrums, then picked up the Trade Winds and managed to reach Cape Town first in 39 days.
In the second leg there was some “hairy stuff.” The wind increased and the waves became higher as they neared the south of Australia. There was ice and snow and they were close to pack ice.
Later, one of the crew slipped and the spinnaker fell into the water pulling the boat back and crushing two others, who were rescued but unconscious for a while.
On continuing the journey, they reached the top of New Zealand and went down the east coast to Auckland where they came in first. The then Prime Minister Bob Muldoon spent some time on board with them.
Dolphins accompanied them for quite a distance at the start of leg three, but then they were hit by a ferocious storm for 30 hours. The mast was struck by lightning and they lost all instruments including the compass so they had to use sea craft – navigating by the sun and moon. Eventually the compass began to settle down. They had a time corrected win by four minutes.
Sailing home on the last leg found crew members becoming a bit depressed at the prospect of going back to work after living on a high for so long. They came in second.