Chichester on Drinking & Sailing

[keelbolts]

Well, not directly, but I think you can see where he stands. He had left GM III to herself & gone below to cook up some dinner when " the wind piped up so I decided I must reef. With several Guinnesses on board this was a slippery job and I made a mental note that I must rig up a life-line and harness"

Doesn't that just crack you up? "Note to self: it's OK to be drunk while under way, but rig a jackstay in case I stagger over the side."

[Rachel]

If I remember correctly, Chichester had a keg installed on one of his later Gipsy Moths (IV? - the voyage recounted in "Gipsy Moth Circles the World"). I don't remember thinking he was drinking to excess on that trip, but more that he simply found it a normal part of "civilized" sailing.

And here we are discussing "tankage" as if it referred only to water and fuel ;-)

Funny, isn't it? Things certainly have changed. I get a similar feeling when I'm reading something by someone such as Hiscock and there is a passage that begins with a line like "When a man sails his boat...." (Read out loud with a proper British accent, of course :-)

--- R.

PS As an aside, I found myself dismayed by Gipsy Moth IV's relatively poor sailing characteristics (as recounted by Chichester). He was annoyed as well but kept on going. I'm not sure I would have been as patient (not that I would have been on the voyage in the first place).

[Jason K]

PS As an aside, I found myself dismayed by Gipsy Moth IV's relatively poor sailing characteristics (as recounted by Chichester). He was annoyed as well but kept on going. I'm not sure I would have been as patient (not that I would have been on the voyage in the first place).

You know, I was at first as well, but I think that part of it is his obvious fondness for grumbling.

You'd think with a keg of beer aboard he'd be in higher spirits.

[bcooke]

...but I think that part of it is his obvious fondness for grumbling

In this case I think the poor sailing characteristics are fact. While I don't admit to reading Cruising World regularly, there is an article about one of his boats grounding in the South Pacific recently. They reiterated that it sailed poorly to weather though that wasn't the cause of the grounding. It seems the skipper was below not checking on the students at the helm and the untrained crew were relying solely on the GPS chartplotter to keep themselves off the reef.

I have also heard rumors that on one of his boats he had it rigged so he could control everything from a safe position in the companionway or something like that. Alongside his controls was a tube that led directly to that keg of beer. He didn't even have to get up to refill his glass. Of course this is how rumors get started and become much better than the real story...

-Britton

[keelbolts]

GM IV was, according to Chichester, a real POC. He actually modified it a bit when he stopped in Australia, which improved her performance, but still left it wanting. For GM V, he returned to Robert Clark, designer of GM III. GM III, the boat he won the first single-handed Trans-Atlantic race with, is a 5' longer version of my boat, he said w/ pride.

[Tim]

...but I think that part of it is his obvious fondness for grumbling

In this case I think the poor sailing characteristics are fact. While I don't admit to reading Cruising World regularly, there is an article about one of his boats grounding in the South Pacific recently. They reiterated that it sailed poorly to weather though that wasn't the cause of the grounding. It seems the skipper was below not checking on the students at the helm and the untrained crew were relying solely on the GPS chartplotter to keep themselves off the reef.
-Britton

From reading Gipsy Moth Circles the World, it's clear that the boat was a lousy performer. It is the overwhelming theme of the book as a whole, even when you take Chichester's crankiness into account. That he still accomplished the solo circumnavigation in the face of such poor performance--particularly the poor balance that made self-steering so difficult--underscores the significance of the voyage and his accomplishment.

One of the reasons I love this book is because of the inimitable British understatement-style of Chichester's writing, even in the face of his sometimes-crankiness. Keelbolts's quote that began this thread, while referring to GM III and an earlier sailing adventure, is typical of the sort of dry humor that one finds in the writing. Frankly, I admire Chichester's honesty in the book. When he was annoyed, you know it--no sense of any watering-down in the text.

Gipsy Moth IV, which was ensconsed on the hard at Greenwich, England for many years, is now sailing again. She did go on a coral reef, but was rescued and repaired in New Zealand.

One can read all about it at http://www.gipsymoth.org/gmiv_repair.asp

I have also heard rumors that on one of his boats he had it rigged so he could control everything from a safe position in the companionway or something like that. Alongside his controls was a tube that led directly to that keg of beer. He didn't even have to get up to refill his glass. Of course this is how rumors get started and become much better than the real story...

I don't know about "control everything", but on Gipsy Moth IV he did have a special gimballed chair in the cabin, from which he could cook, navigate, and, of course, access his precious keel-mounted keg of beer. This is all well documented in the book about the voyage, and isn't just lore and legend. Here is the gentleman refilling his beer glass from his custom chair.

I don't remember thinking he was drinking to excess on that trip, but more that he simply found it a normal part of "civilized" sailing.

I agree. He'd frequently have a "nip", but coming from a more Corinthian age of sailing--and lifetime in general--I also believe that having a glass of beer from time to time was just a normal part of everyday life and sailing. After all, why should a solo voyage around the world require becoming a teetotaler?

Actually, many of the books detailing the voyages from these earlier times (1960s, in general) show that the skippers found alcoholic rations to be an important part of their stores. I seem to recall many references to the liquor cabinet in Robin Knox Johnson's book about his victory in the first nonstop solo circumnavigation race, A World of My Own, among others. In fact, I believe that he was rather put upon when his stores ran out before he managed to finish the race.

[Rachel]

The gimbaled chair has always struck me as a great idea for offshore sailing; you spend so much mental and physical energy just ... gimballing yourself, otherwise. 'Course it might then be hard to talk yourself into getting out of the chair and back to the "real" world to go reef a sail or something...

What I love most about that photo of Chichester getting a bit of beer is the crisp, white "dress" shirt he's wearing. Does he have a new one for every day of the voyage? Can he reach his travel-iron from the chair?

I jest, but basically I agree with Tim - although it was painful at times to read about how horribly Gipsy Moth IV sailed, I do love Chichester's spirit and how it shows through in his writing. Clear, formal prose; yet it doesn't hide what's going on in his world/head, even when it's unpleasant. And always the dry humor :-)

--- R.

[bcooke]

I don't know, I think I might start feeling ill sitting in a gimbaled chair and watching everything else around me bounce around and around and around... Feeling the boat lurch and just seeing it lurch effects me differently.

I heard the beer story through the rumor mill so I am sure the 'control' thing was added to make the story more interesting. Maybe I should steal some money out of my boat fund and buy the book. It sounds like a classic. I wonder how long that would set back my launch date...

-Britton

[Tim]

A classic indeed, and a must-read for any armchair voyager.

If you're nice and promise to give it back, you can borrow my copy next time you come to Maine. I'd hate to see you set your boat project back.

All the solo round-the-world race boats (the open 50s and 60s) now have gimballed chairs (usually Recaro seats or similar) and nav stations, where the skippers pretty much spend all their time during the race.