Robin Knox-Johnston

Robin Knox-Johnston was a merchant navy officer who had built his boat, Suhaili, in Bombay with a few friends, from teak, with no great plan beyond sailing it home. When the Sunday Times announced a race in 1968 for the first person to sail alone around the world without stopping, he was 29 and had the smallest and slowest boat among the nine who set out. Several serious sailors thought the attempt was not survivable.

He left Falmouth on 14 June 1968. His self-steering gear broke in the Southern Ocean and he learned to balance the sails so the boat would hold a course on its own. His radio failed, so for months no one knew whether he was alive. His fresh water tank was contaminated and he collected rain. He was knocked down in the Indian Ocean, repaired the cabin top by diving under the boat with a hammer, and ate tinned food for nearly a year.

Of the nine starters, four retired, others were dismasted or gave up, Bernard Moitessier abandoned the race to keep sailing to Tahiti, and Donald Crowhurst, whose faked positions were discovered after his boat was found empty, had killed himself. Knox-Johnston sailed back into Falmouth on 22 April 1969 after 312 days, the only finisher. He gave the five thousand pounds prize money to Crowhurst's widow and children.

He went on racing into his seventies, founded the Clipper Round the World Race for amateur crews, and was knighted in 1995.