THE NEW WAVE OF MODERN-DAY MULTIHULLS APPEARS TO BE ATTRACTING THOSE LOOKING FOR A NEW TYPE OF CHALLENGE
THE STORY OF THE Sunday Times Golden Globe race of 1969 is an iconic sailing event and some of the
most striking images from the archive relating to this race are the grainy photos
of Donald Crowhurst and Nigel Tetley setting out in their trimarans - Teignmouth Electron and Victress respectively. One look at either of these somewhat tenuous craft and you can't help
but think, well, dear God. Crowhurst may have been eccentric but he was sane enough
to realise that his command was wholly incapable of dealing with the Southern Ocean.
What he did next in faking his own voyage while slowly unravelling mentally was unfortunate
to say the least. The forgotten tragedy behind this tragedy is that Nigel Tetley,
having braved the Southern Ocean, pushed Victress too hard in the north Atlantic
- largely because he thought Crowhurst was on his tail - with the result that his
plywood trimaran broke up 1,200nm short of the finish.
All this is very sad, particularly given Tetley's later demise. However, as I usher in our latest annual issue focusing on multihulls, it makes you realise just how far these yachts have come since the rather esoteric days of the ’60s and ’70s. If you look at the racing scene, you have the Ultim class which has just concluded an extraordinary singlehanded race around the world - all completed in a shade over
