Coordinates: 55°58′47″S 067°16′18″W / 55.97972°S 67.27167°W / -55.97972; -67.27167

Cape Horn

Cape Horn (Dutch:  Kaap Hoorn (help·info), Spanish: Cabo de Hornos; named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America, (which are the Diego Ramírez Islands) Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage; for many years it was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. However, the waters around the Cape are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs; these dangers have made it notorious as a sailors' graveyard.

The need for ships to round the Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. However, sailing around the Horn is widely regarded as one of the major challenges in yachting. Thus, a few recreational sailors continue to sail this route, sometimes as part of a circumnavigation of the globe, and almost all of these choosing routes through the channels to the north of the actual Cape (though many take a detour through the islands and anchor to wait for fair weather to actually visit Horn Island or even sail around it to replicate a rounding of this historic point). Several prominent ocean yacht races, notably the Volvo Ocean Race, the VELUX 5 Oceans and the Vendée Globe, sail around the world via the Horn, and speed records for round-the-world sailing are recognized for following this route.

Geography and ecology[link]

Cape Horn, seen from the Chilean Navy station location. The small lighthouse can be seen as a white spot close to the seaside

Cape Horn is located at 55°58′47″S 067°16′18″W / 55.97972°S 67.27167°W / -55.97972; -67.27167, on Isla Hornos in the Hermite Islands group, at the southern end of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.^[1][2] It marks the north edge of the Drake Passage, the strait between South America and Antarctica. The dividing line between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans runs along the meridian of Cape Horn, from Tierra del Fuego to the Southern Ocean.^[3] It is located in Cabo de Hornos National Park.

Cape Horn was originally given the Dutch name "Kaap Hoorn", in honour of the Dutch city of Hoorn; in a typical example of false cognates, the Hoorn became known in English as "Cape Horn", and in Spanish as "Cabo de Hornos" (which literally means "Cape of Ovens").^[4] It is commonly known to English-speaking sailors as The Horn.^[5]

The cape lies within Chilean territorial waters, and the Chilean Navy maintains a station on Hoorn Island, consisting of a residence, utility building, chapel, and lighthouse.^[6] A short distance from the main station is a memorial, including a large sculpture made by Chilean sculptor José Balcells featuring the silhouette of an albatross, in honour of the sailors who died while attempting to "round the Horn". It was erected in 1992 through the initiative of the Chilean Section of the Cape Horn Captains Brotherhood.^[7]

The terrain is entirely treeless, although quite lush owing to the frequent precipitation. Cape Horn is the southern limit of the range of the Magellanic Penguin.^[8]

Lighthouses[link]

There are two lighthouses near or in Cape Horn. The one located in the Chilean Navy Station is the more accessible and visited, and is commonly referred to as the Cape Horn lighthouse. However, the Chilean Navy station, including the lighthouse (ARLS CHI-030, 55°58′0″S 67°13′0″W / 55.966667°S 67.216667°W / -55.966667; -67.216667) and the memorial, are not located on Cape Horn itself (which is difficult to access either by land or sea), but on another land point about one mile east-northeast.^[9]

On Cape Horn there is a smaller 4 m (13 ft) fiberglass light tower with a focal plane of 40 m (131 ft) and a range of about 21 km (13 mi). This is the authentic Cape Horn lighthouse (ARLS CHI-006, 55°58.46′0″S 67°16′0″W / 55.974333°S 67.266667°W / -55.974333; -67.266667), and as such the world's southernmost traditional lighthouse.^[10] There exist a few minor aids to navigation farther south, including one in Diego Ramírez Islands and several in Antarctica.

Climate[link]

The climate in the region is generally cool, owing to the southern latitude. There are no weather stations in the group of islands including Cape Horn; however, a study in 1882–1883 found an annual rainfall of 1,357 millimetres (53.42 in), with an average annual temperature of 5.2 °C (41.4 °F). Winds were reported to average 30 kilometres per hour (19 mph), with squalls of over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) occurring in all seasons.^[11]

Contemporary weather records for Ushuaia, 146 kilometres (91 mi) north, show that summer (January–February) average temperatures range from highs of 14 °C (57 °F) to lows of 5 °C (42 °F); in winter (July), average temperatures range from 4 °C (40 °F) to −2 °C (29 °F). Cloud cover is generally high, with averages from 5.2 eighths in May and July to 6.4 eighths in December and January.^[12] Precipitation is high throughout the year: the weather station on the nearby Diego Ramirez Islands, 109 kilometres (68 mi) south-west in the Drake Passage, shows the greatest rainfall in March, averaging 137.4 millimetres (5.41 in); while October, which has the least rainfall, still averages 93.7 millimetres (3.69 in).^[13] Wind conditions are generally severe, particularly in winter. In summer, the wind at Cape Horn is gale force up to 5% of the time, with generally good visibility; however, in winter, gale force winds occur up to 30% of the time, often with poor visibility.^[14]

Many stories are told of hazardous journeys "around the Horn," most describing fierce storms. In sea chanteys and other songs this danger is alluded to with "Cape Horn" frequently being rhymed with "never been born."^{[citation needed]}

Political[link]

The islands around Cape Horn

Cape Horn is part of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, whose capital is Puerto Williams; this in turn is part of Antártica Chilena Province, whose capital is also Puerto Williams. The area is part of the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region of Chile.^[15]

Puerto Toro, a few miles south of Puerto Williams, is the closest town to the cape, and the southernmost town in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Sailing routes[link]

There are a number of potential sailing routes around the tip of South America. The Strait of Magellan, between the mainland and Tierra del Fuego, is a major — although narrow — passage, which was in use for trade well before the Horn was discovered; the Beagle Channel, between Tierra del Fuego and Isla Navarino, offers a potential, though difficult route; and there are various passages around the Wollaston and Hermite Islands to the north of Cape Horn.^[16]

All of these, however, are notorious for treacherous williwaw winds, which can strike a vessel with little or no warning;^[17] given the narrowness of these routes, there is a significant risk of then being driven onto the rocks. The open waters of the Drake Passage, south of Cape Horn, provide by far the widest route, at about 800 kilometres (500 mi) wide; this passage offers ample sea room for maneuvering as winds change, and is the route used by most ships and sailboats, despite the possibility of extreme wave conditions.^[4]

Shipping hazards[link]

Several factors combine to make the passage around Cape Horn one of the most hazardous shipping routes in the world: the fierce sailing conditions prevalent in the Southern Ocean generally; the geography of the passage south of the Horn; and the extreme southern latitude of the Horn, at 56° south. (For comparison, Cape Agulhas at the southern tip of Africa is at 35° south; Stewart Island/Rakiura at the south end of New Zealand is 47° south.)

The prevailing winds in latitudes below 40° south can blow from west to east around the world almost uninterrupted by land, giving rise to the "roaring forties" and the even more wild "furious fifties" and "screaming sixties". These winds are hazardous enough in themselves that ships traveling east would tend to stay in the northern part of the forties (i.e. not far below 40° south latitude); however, rounding Cape Horn requires ships to press south to 56° south latitude, well into the zone of fiercest winds.^[18] These winds are further exacerbated at the Horn by the funneling effect of the Andes and the Antarctic peninsula, which channel the winds into the relatively narrow Drake Passage.

The strong winds of the Southern Ocean give rise to correspondingly large waves; these waves can attain enormous size as they roll around the Southern Ocean, free of any interruption from land. At the Horn, however, these waves encounter an area of shallow water to the south of the Horn, which has the effect of making the waves shorter and steeper, greatly increasing the hazard to ships. If the strong eastward current through the Drake Passage encounters an opposing east wind, this can have the effect of further building up the waves.^[19] In addition to these "normal" waves, the area west of the Horn is particularly notorious for rogue waves, which can attain heights of up to 30 metres (100 ft).^[20]

The prevailing winds and currents create particular problems for vessels attempting to round the Horn against them, i.e. from east to west. Although this affects all vessels to some extent, it was a particularly serious problem for traditional sailing ships, which could make very little headway against the wind at the best of times;^[21] modern sailing boats are significantly more efficient to windward and can more reliably make a westward passage of the Horn, as they do in the Global Challenge race.

Ice is a hazard to sailors venturing far below 40° south. Although the ice limit dips south around the horn, icebergs are a significant hazard for vessels in the area. In the South Pacific in February (summer in Southern Hemisphere), icebergs are generally confined to below 50° south; but in August the iceberg hazard can extend north of 40° south. Even in February, though, the Horn is well below the latitude of the iceberg limit.^[22] These hazards have made the Horn notorious as perhaps the most dangerous ship passage in the world; many ships were wrecked, and many sailors died, attempting to round the Cape.

History[link]

Discovery[link]

Approaching Cape Horn from the south-west.

The voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob le Maire in 1615–1616

In 1525 the vessel San Lesmes commanded by Francisco de Hoces, member of the Loaísa Expedition, was blown south by a gale in front of the Atlantic end of Magellan Strait and reached 56° S where they thought to see Land's End.

In September 1578, Sir Francis Drake, in the course of his circumnavigation of the world, passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. Before he could continue his voyage north his ships encountered a storm, and were blown well to the south of Tierra del Fuego. The expanse of open water they encountered led Drake to guess that far from being another continent, as previously believed, Tierra del Fuego was an island with open sea to its south. This discovery went unused for some time, as ships continued to use the known passage through the Strait of Magellan.^[23]

By the early 17th century the Dutch East India Company was given a monopoly on all Dutch trade via the Straits of Magellan and the Cape of Good Hope, the only known routes at the time to the Far East. To search for an alternate route and one to the unknown Terra Australis, Isaac Le Maire,^[24] a wealthy Amsterdam merchant and Willem Schouten, a ship’s master of Hoorn, contributed in equal shares to the enterprise, with additional financial support from merchants of Hoorn.^[25] Jacob Le Maire, Isaac’s son, went on the journey as “chiefe Marchant and principall factor,” in charge of trading aspects of the endeavor. The two ships that departed Holland at the beginning of June 1615 were the Eendracht^[26] of 360 tons with Schouten and Le Maire aboard, and the Hoorn of 110 tons, of which Schouten’s brother Johan was master. It was Eendracht then, with the crew of the recently wrecked Hoorn aboard,^[27] that passed through the Le Maire Strait and Schouten and Le Maire made their great discovery:

“In the evening 25 January 1616 the winde was South West, and that night wee went South with great waves or billowes out of the southwest, and very blew water, whereby wee judged, and held for certaine that ... it was the great South Sea, whereat we were exceeding glad to thinke that wee had discovered a way, which until that time, was unknowne to men, as afterward wee found it to be true.”^[28]

“... on 29 January 1616 we saw land againe lying north west and north northwest from us, which was the land that lay South from the straights of Magelan which reacheth Southward, all high hillie lande covered over with snow, ending with a sharpe point which wee called Cape Horne [Kaap Hoorn] ...”^[4][29]

At the time it was discovered, the Horn was believed to be the southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego; the unpredictable violence of weather and sea conditions in the Drake Passage made exploration difficult, and it was only in 1624 that the Horn was discovered to be an island. It is a telling testament to the difficulty of conditions there that Antarctica, only 650 kilometres (400 mi) away across the Drake Passage, was discovered only as recently as 1820, despite the passage having been used as a major shipping route for 200 years.^[1]

Trade route[link]

The clipper route followed by ships sailing between England and Australia/New Zealand passed around Cape Horn.

From the 18th to the early 20th centuries, Cape Horn was a part of the clipper routes which carried much of the world's trade. Clipper ships sailed round the Horn carrying wool, grain, and gold from Australia back to Europe;^[30] much trade was carried around the Horn between Europe and the Far East; and trade and passenger ships travelled between the coasts of the United States via the Horn.^[31][32] The Horn exacted a heavy toll from shipping, however, owing to the extremely hazardous combination of conditions there.

The only facilities in the vicinity able to service or supply a ship, or provide medical care, were in the Falkland Islands. The businesses there were so notorious for price-gouging that damaged ships were sometimes abandoned at Port Stanley.

While most companies switched to steamers and later used the Panama canal, German steel-hulled sailing ships like the Flying P-Liners were designed since the 1890s to withstand the weather conditions around the Horn, as they specialized in the South American nitrate trade and later the Australian grain trade. None of them were lost around the Horn, but some, like the mighty Preußen, were victims of collisions in the busy English channel.

Traditionally, a sailor who had rounded the Horn was entitled to wear a gold loop earring — in the left ear, the one which had faced the Horn in a typical eastbound passage — and to dine with one foot on the table; a sailor who had also rounded the Cape of Good Hope could place both feet on the table.^[33][34]

One particular historic attempt to round the Horn, that of HMS Bounty in 1788, has been immortalized in history due to the subsequent Mutiny on the Bounty. This abortive Horn voyage has been portrayed (with varying historical accuracy) in three major motion pictures about Captain William Bligh's mission to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to Jamaica. The Bounty made only 85 miles of headway in 31 days of east-to-west sailing, before giving up by reversing course and going around Africa. Although the 1984 movie portrayed another decision to go round the Horn as a precipitating factor in the mutiny (this time west-to-east after collecting the breadfruits in the South Pacific), in fact that was never contemplated out of concern for the effect of the low temperatures near the Horn on the plants.^[35]

The transcontinental railroads in North America, as well as the Panama Canal that opened in 1914 in Central America, led to the gradual decrease in use of the Horn for trade. As steamships replaced sailing ships, Flying P-Liner Pamir became the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn laden with cargo, carrying grain from Port Victoria, Australia to Falmouth, England in 1949.

Many modern tankers are too wide to fit through the Panama Canal, as are a few passenger ships and several aircraft carriers. But there are no regular commercial routes around the Horn, and modern ships are rarely seen.

Recreational and sport sailing[link]

Despite the opening of the Suez and Panama Canals, the Horn remains part of the fastest sailing route around the world, and so the growth in recreational long-distance sailing has brought about a revival of sailing via the Horn. Owing to the remoteness of the location and the hazards there, a rounding of Cape Horn is widely considered to be the yachting equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, and so many sailors seek it out for its own sake.^[36][37][38]

Joshua Slocum was the first single-handed yachtsman to successfully pass this way (in 1895) although in the end, extreme weather forced him to use some of the inshore routes between the channels and islands and it is believed he did not actually pass outside the Horn proper. If one had to go by strict definitions, the first small boat to sail around outside Cape Horn was the 42-foot (13 m) yacht Saoirse, sailed by Conor O'Brien with three friends, who rounded it during a circumnavigation of the world between 1923 and 1925.^[1] In 1934, the Norwegian Al Hansen was the first to round Cape Horn single-handed from east to west — the "wrong way" — in his boat Mary Jane, but was subsequently wrecked on the coast of Chile.^[39] The first person to successfully circumnavigate the world single-handed via Cape Horn was Vito Dumas, who made the voyage in 1942 in his 33-foot (10 m) ketch Lehg II; a number of other sailors have since followed him.^[40] including Webb Chiles aboard "EGREGIOUS" who in December 1975 became the first American to round Cape Horn single-handed. On March 31, 2010, 16-year old Abby Sunderland became the youngest person to single-handedly sail around Cape-Horn in her attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

Today, there are several major yacht races held regularly along the old clipper route via Cape Horn. The first of these was the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, which was a single-handed race; this inspired the present-day Around Alone race, which circumnavigates with stops, and the Vendée Globe, which is non-stop. Both of these are single-handed races, and are held every four years. The Volvo Ocean Race is a crewed race with stops which sails the clipper route every four years. Its origins lie in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race first competed in 1973-4. The Jules Verne Trophy is a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht, with no restrictions on the size of the crew (no assistance, non-stop). Finally, the Global Challenge race goes around the world the "wrong way", from east to west, which involves rounding Cape Horn against the prevailing winds and currents.

The Horn remains a major hazard for recreational sailors, however. A classic case is that of Miles and Beryl Smeeton, who attempted to round the Horn in their yacht Tzu Hang. Hit by a rogue wave when approaching the Horn, the boat pitchpoled (i.e. somersaulted end-over-end). Although they survived, and were able to make repairs in Talcahuano, Chile, they attempted the passage again, only to be rolled over, and dismasted for a second time, by another rogue wave, which again they miraculously survived.^[41]

Rounding the Horn, under sail, on a non-stop passage of more than 3,000 miles passing through the latitude of 50 degrees south both east and west of Cape Horn grants sailors eligibility to apply for membership of the exclusive International Association of Cape Horners; a redoubtable organisation whose origins lie amongst those who rounded the Horn as professional seamen serving upon the tall ships of the Clipper era. There are no exceptions to the strict joining criteria whose membership now includes members of crews from several notable Round the World Yacht races and others who have shared the same unique experience - the 'Mount Everest' of ocean sailing.

Literature and culture[link]

Cape Horn has been an icon of sailing culture for centuries; it has featured in sea shanties^[42] and in many books about sailing. One of the classic accounts of a working ship in the age of sail is Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., in which the author describes an arduous trip from Boston to California via Cape Horn:

Charles Darwin, in The Voyage of the Beagle, a journal of the five-year expedition upon which he based The Origin of Species, described his 1832 encounter with the Horn:

Alan Villiers, a modern-day expert in traditional sailing ships, wrote many books about traditional sailing, including By way of Cape Horn.^[45] More recent sailors have taken on the Horn singly, such as Vito Dumas, who wrote Alone Through The Roaring Forties based on his round-the-world voyage;^[46] or with small crews.

Bernard Moitessier made two significant voyages round the horn; once with his wife Françoise, described in Cape Horn: The Logical Route,^[47] and once single-handed. His book The Long Way tells the story of this latter voyage, and of a peaceful night-time passage of the Horn: "The little cloud underneath the moon has moved to the right. I look... there it is, so close, less than 10 miles (16 km) away and right under the moon. And nothing remains but the sky and the moon playing with the Horn. I look. I can hardly believe it. So small and so huge. A hillock, pale and tender in the moonlight; a colossal rock, hard as diamond."^[48]

And John Masefield wrote: "Cape Horn, that tramples beauty into wreck / And crumples steel and smites the strong man dumb" ^[49]

A memorial presented in Robert FitzRoy's bicentenary (2005) commemorates his landing on Cape Horn on 19 April 1830.

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song entitled "Ghosts of Cape Horn."

'Rounding the Horn'[link]

Visiting Cabo de Hornos can be done on a day trip by helicopter or more arduously by charter power boat or sailboat - or by cruise ship. "Rounding the Horn" is traditionally understood to involve sailing from 50 degrees south on one coast to 50 degrees south on the other coast, the two benchmark latitudes of a Horn run,^[50] a considerably more difficult and time-consuming endeavor.^[51]

Further reading[link]

• Around Cape Horn: A Maritime Artist/Historian's Account of His 1892 Voyage, by Charles G. Davis and Neal Parker. Down East Books, 2004. ISBN 0-89272-646-6
• Cape Horn. A Maritime History, by Robin Knox-Johnston. London Hodder&Stoughton ISBN 0-340-41527-4
• Cape Horn: The Story of the Cape Horn Region, by Felix Riesenberg and William A. Briesemeister. Ox Bow Press, 1994. ISBN 1-881987-04-3
• Cape Horn and Other Stories From the End of the World, by Francisco Coloane. Latin American Literary Review Press, 2003. ISBN 1-891270-17-6
• Gipsy Moth Circles the World, Sir Francis Chichester; International Marine, 2001. ISBN 0-07-136449-8
• Haul Away! Teambuilding Lessons from a Voyage around Cape Horn, by Rob Duncan. Authorhouse, 2005. ISBN 1-4208-3032-5
• Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives - A Deck's-Eye View of Cape Horn, by Dallas Murphy. Basic Books, 2004. ISBN 0-465-04759-9
• En el Mar Austral, by Fray Mocho. University of Buenos Aires Press (La Serie del Siglo y Medio), 1960. An incredible account of the southern tip of South American by an Argentine Journalist.
• High Endeavours, by Miles Clark. Greystone, 2002. ISBN 1-55054-058-0 An account of the lives of the author's god-father Miles Smeeton, and his wife Beryl, including a couple of spectacular trips to the Horn.
• A world of my Own by Robin Knox-Johnston. An account of the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world via Cape Horn between 1968 and 1969.
• Expediciones españolas al Estrecho de Magallanes y Tierra de fuego, by Javier Oyarzun. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica ISBN 84-7232-130-4.
• Storm Passage by Webb Chiles. Times Books ISBN 0-8129-0703-5
• The Last of the Cape Horners. Firsthand Accounts from the Final Days of the Commercial Tall Ships, edited by Spencer Apollonio. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, Inc. 2000. ISBN 1-57488-283-X
• Cape Horn - a maritime history by Robin Knox-Johnston

See also[link]

• Beagle conflict affecting the nearby Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands
• Cabo de Hornos, Chilean commune in Antártica Chilena Province of Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region
• Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve
• Cape Horner
• Cape Leeuwin, the Australian landmark on the clipper route
• Garcia de Nodal expedition, the second passing around Cape Horn
• Patagonian Expedition Race
• Diego Ramírez Islands

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cape Horn

• International Association of Cape Horners
• Chilean Brotherhood of Cape Horn Captains (Caphorniers)
• Adventurer George Kourounis' expedition to Cape Horn
• A monument at the end of the world -- Chilean sculptor José Balcells' article (Spanish)
• Robert FitzRoy's commemorative plaque in Horn Island (image)
• Cape Horn, Tierra Del Fuego, Antarctica and South Georgia -- antique charts of the Cape Horn region
• Sailing Way Down South -- Ellen MacArthur's rendezvous at Cabo de Hornos
• Satellite image and infopoints on BlooSee
• Satellite image from Google Maps

Sir William Robert Patrick "Robin" Knox-Johnston, CBE, RD and bar (born 17 March 1939) is an English sailor. He was the first man to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe and was the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy (together with Sir Peter Blake). For this he was awarded with Blake the ISAF Yachtsman of the Year award. In 2006 he became at 67 the oldest yachtsman to complete a round the world solo voyage in the VELUX 5 Oceans Race.

Life[link]

Early life[link]

He was born in Putney in London, grew up on The Wirral and was educated at the Berkhamsted Boys school. From 1957 to 1965 he served in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Naval Reserve. In 1965 he sailed his Colin Archer design sloop Suhaili from Bombay to England. Due to a lack of money he had to interrupt his voyage for work in South Africa and was only able to complete it in 1967.^[1]

Family[link]

In 1962 he married Suzanne (Sue), who he had known from the age of 8 and they had one daughter, Sara, who was born in Bombay whilst he was at sea. She left him when he proposed taking her and the child back to England in his new boat Suhaili, and they were divorced in 1967.^[2] However, in 1972 they remarried and now have five grandchildren. She died in 2003.^[3]

Circumnavigation of the Earth[link]

On 14 June 1968 Robin Knox-Johnston left Falmouth in his 32-foot (9.8-meter) boat Suhaili, one of the smallest boats to enter the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Despite losing his self-steering gear off Australia, he rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969, 20 days before his closest competitor Bernard Moitessier, who subsequently abandoned the race and sailed on to Tahiti. The other seven competitors dropped out at various stages, leaving Knox-Johnston to win the race and become officially the first man to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handed on 22 April 1969, the day he returned to Falmouth. Knox-Johnston donated his prize money for fastest competitor to the family of Donald Crowhurst, who committed suicide after attempting to fake a round the world voyage.

In recognition of his achievement, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Further exploits[link]

In 1970 (with Leslie Williams) and in 1974 (with Gerry Boxall) Robin Knox-Johnston won the two-handed Round Britain Race. Robin Knox-Johnston, Les Williams and their crew, which Peter Blake was also part of, took line honours of the 1971 Cape Town to Rio Race. Les Williams and Robin Knox-Johnston jointly skippered (Peter Blake crewmember again) maxi yacht Heath's Condor in the 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race. They took the line honours in the second and fourth leg, the ones which Robin Knox-Johnston skippered.^{[citation needed]}

Robin Knox-Johnston and Peter Blake (who both acted as co-skippers) won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation in 1994. Their time was 74 days 22 hours 18 minutes and 22 seconds. It was their second attempt to win this prize after their first one in 1992 had to be aborted when their catamaran Enza hit an object which tore a hole in the starboard hull.

From 1992 to 2001 he was President of the Sail Training Association. During his tenure the money was collected to replace the STA’s vessels Sir Winston Churchill and Malcolm Miller by the new, larger brigs Prince William and Stavros S. Niarchos. He was trustee of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich from 1992 to 2002 and still is trustee of the National Maritime Museum – Cornwall at Falmouth, where Suhaili is berthed today. The yacht has been refitted and took part in the Round the Island Race in June 2005.

He was created a knight bachelor in 1995.^[4]

In 1996 Robin established the first Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and has since worked with the Clipper Ventures company as Chairman to progress the race to higher levels every year.^[5] It is perhaps his greatest achievement to have introduced so many people to competitive sailing via their involvement in Clipper Ventures.

He completed his second solo circumnavigation of the world in the yacht SAGA Insurance on 4 May 2007, finishing in 4th place in the VELUX 5 Oceans Race.^[6] At 68 he was the oldest competitor in the race.^[7]

In late 2008/early 2009 he took part in a new BBC program called Top Dogs: Adventures in War, Sea and Ice. The program sees him unite with fellow British legends Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the adventurer, and John Simpson, the BBC World Affairs Editor. The team go on three trips, each experiencing each others adventure field. The first episode, aired on 27 March 2009, saw Robin, Fiennes and Simpson go on a potentially very dangerous news-gathering trip to Afghanistan. The team reported from the legendary Khyber Pass and infamous Tora Bora mountain complex. The three also undertake a voyage around Cape Horn and an expedition hauling sledges across the deep-frozen Frobisher Bay in the far north of Canada.

Having served two years as President of The Cruising Association, Sir Robin is now the association's patron.

Books[link]

• A World of My Own. 1969, Cassell (reissued 2004 by Adlard Coles Nautical).
• A Voyage for Madmen. 2002, HarperCollins Publishers.
• Cape Horn, a maritime adventure 1995. Hodder & Stoughton.
• Seamanship 1987. Hodder & Stoughton.
• Force of Nature with Kate Laven, 2007. Michael Joseph, London.
• Face to Face: Ocean Portraits, by Huw Lewis-Jones 2010. ISBN 978-1-84486-124-8, Foreword. Conway and Polarworld.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Opening the Southampton Boat Show 2008
• Robin Knox-Johnston homepage
• Robin Knox-Johnston Interview
• Robin Knox Johnston Online Game
• Chapter 30 of The Circumnavigators by Don Holm
• Books by Robin Knox-Johnston

Jessica Watson
Born	(1993-05-18) 18 May 1993 (age 19) Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Residence	Buderim, Queensland, Australia
Nationality	Australian New Zealand
Occupation	Sailor
Known for	Youngest person to sail solo around the world (unassisted)
Parents	Julie Watson Roger Watson
Website
Official website

Jessica Watson, OAM (born 18 May 1993) is an Australian sailor. She resides in Buderim, Queensland. In May 2010, she unofficially became the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world, although her route did not meet World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) criteria for circumnavigation of the globe.^[1]

Watson departed from Sydney on 18 October 2009, heading eastbound over the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. She returned to Sydney on 15 May 2010, three days before her 17th birthday.^[2]

On 25 January 2011 she was named the 2011 Young Australian of the Year.^[3] The following year she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.^[4]