A Voyage For Madmen: Nine men set out to race each other around the world. Only one made it back ... - Softcover

Nichols, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846684439 ISBN 13: 9781846684432

Publisher: Profile Books, 2011

Synopsis

Published to coincide with the Golden Globe Race's 50th Anniversary

It lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and non-stop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done. In 1968, nine men - six Englishmen, two Frenchmen and an Italian - set out to try, a race born of coincidence of their timing. One didn't even know how to sail. They had more in common with Captain Cook or Ferdinand Magellan than with the high-tech, extreme sailors of today, a mere forty years later.

It was not the sea or the weather that determined the nature of their voyages but the men they were, and they were as different from one another as Scott from Amundsen. Only one of the nine crossed the finishing line after ten months at sea. The rest encountered despair, sublimity, madness and even death.

About this title

Review:

Rich with excitement, accomplished, gripping and authoritative, A Voyage for Madmen is the story of the yachting tournament from hell written by a man who is himself a gifted sailor as well as writer.

Peter Nichols' previous book, Sea Change, was the telling account of his own crossing of the Atlantic in a ridiculously small wooden boat. Now he's taken the skills he employed in that much-praised slice of autobiography to relay another quixotic tale. The subject this time is the infamous Golden Globe yacht race of 1968, when nine men, some French, some English, all bonkers (hence the title), undertook the most challenging adventure of their lives. The goal was to sail around the world solo, a feat no one had yet achieved; to make matters just that extra bit tricky some of the sailors were total novices.

The book analyses the fate of each sailor in turn. Using polished, craftsman-like, clear and sometimes moving prose, Nichols describes how the nine fought through storms and collisions, through the roaring 40s and the furious 50s, and how each man experienced those moments of solitary despair, lonely disappointment and occasional mystical elation that are unique to long-haul solo sailing. One of the most commendable features of the book is the way Nichols discusses the technical side of yachtsmanship with verve and passion without ever turning into an anorak. This is a fine and absorbing true-life tragicomedy, suitable for landlubbers and sea dogs alike. --Sean Thomas

Review:

Told with verve and riddled with drama, you can smell the salty air and feel the spray on every page (Sunday Times)

An enthralling tale of human endeavour and courage in the face of adversity ... you don't need to know your spinnaker from your mainsail to enjoy this book (Tatler)

As a carpenter purrs over perfect dovetailing, so I rejoiced in the craftsmanship of this book (Simon Barnes)

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1846684439
• ISBN 13: 9781846684432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320