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3:41 AM Fri 24 Apr 2009 GMT
 | | 'Celebrating 40 years - photo by Akira Suemori'
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The hardy sailor that was the only one to complete - and therefore win - the historic first round-the-world solo challenge in 1969, celebrates the anniversary and muses about sailing then, now, and in the future.
British sailor Robin Knox-Johnston made history by sailing nonstop around the world single-handed in a small wooden boat he built himself, battling hurricane force winds along the way.
He was one of nine sailors who set sail from Falmouth on the south coast of England in June 1968 to take part in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race _ and was the only one to finish.
The sprightly 70-year-old Knox-Johnston _ who repeated the feat two years ago _ came to London's St. Katherine's Dock on Wednesday to celebrate his historic sail, standing proudly aboard his beloved Suhaili, which had been trucked up to London for the occasion.
While today he sails and races much bigger, faster and more modern boats, the teak-built, traditionally designed Suhaili remains close to his heart.
'Oh, bless her, she's a good little boat,' Knox-Johnston told The Associated Press, noting that he still owns her and is slowly restoring her himself.
'I'm actually very sentimental about Suhaili, she's so much a part of my life,' he said. 'I feel she looked after me and I owe it to her to look after her in return. She's a great little boat. She isn't fast but she's very seaworthy.'
Knox-Johnston crossed the finish line on April 22, 1969, to worldwide acclaim. While four decades ago it took Knox-Johnston 312 days to circle the globe, modern race boats can do it in less than 90.
He is marking the milestone with a dinner with fellow British round-the-world sailors, including record- breaking yachtswoman Dee Caffari and Steve White, who both recently completed the Vendee Globe round the world race, also a nonstop event.
So what possessed a man to want to sail around the world alone, without stopping, in a boat no bigger than a typical weekend cruiser?
'Well really, Francis Chichester had left just the one thing to be done, and that was to get round nonstop _ he stopped in Australia _ and I suppose there's ambition in everyone isn't there to do something a little different,' Knox-Johnston said.
His closest competitor, Bernard Moitessier, being within reach of the prize, abandoned the race and kept sailing to Tahiti where remained for the rest of his life, while Donald Crowhurst is believed to have committed suicide after sailing in circles and falsifying his race reports. His boat was found drifting.
After winning the race, Knox-Johnston donated the prize money to Crowhurst's family.
Knox-Johnston said the scariest time of the entire voyage was running into a hurricane force storm between Cape Town and Australia.
'I'd never seen weather like that before, and I honestly thought she was going to break up,' he said. 'The waves were just smashing into her. I eventually found a way of getting her to lie comfortably. I put warps (heavy ropes) out the stern and the stern to the waves and she just lay beautifully. And from thereafter really, bad weather didn't frighten me.'
While some sailors have commented on the decline of marine life in recent years, Knox-Johnston said that he has also seen positive developments and believes the oceans are now cleaner than they were 40 years ago, thanks mainly to international treaties designed to reduce pollution from ships introduced in the 1970s.
He has also noticed an increase in the number of whales.
'I hit one three years ago and damaged the boat, I think they should be fitted with navigation lights,' he joked.
Knox-Johnston's business, Clipper Ventures, runs the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in which amateur crews, but with a professional skipper, circumnavigate the globe.
'I thoroughly enjoy introducing every two years 400-450 people to ocean sailing and watching them change as they learn and get confident,' he said. 'So I'm slightly driven on that, on safety and teaching these people, that drives me.'
With nothing left for him to prove in the world of sailing, his next voyage is likely to be for pleasure, with friends and family.
'I'd like to cruise round the world just stopping at all those places I've been to before and would like to see again or haven't seen yet,' Knox-Johnston said. 'Once I sell the Open 60 (his racing boat) that's the next project, to build a good-sized cruising boat. Three nice cabins so I can have friends along and family and just take off.'
by Paul Caine, Taiwan News/Sail-World
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Mawson, TAS
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