Sheila Chichester’s story made me think of the similarities between two great seafarers who each wrote a chapter of sailing history: Francis Drake and Francis Chichester. So often, beside every great man there’s a great woman. While looking for the third annex to the Italian edition in which he detailed the Gipsy Moth IV’s sail plan, I stumbled upon a chapter written by his wife Sheila Chichester.
In 1967, Chichester was the first to circumnavigate the globe solo via the three great capes, stopping only once it took him nine months and one day.
In my “sea library” I found Sir Francis Chichester’s “Gipsy Moth Circles the World”. When I found out about the Global Solo Challenge (GSC) and its innovative format that favors the use of existing boats and no specific class, I went in search of the designs of the vessels used by the pioneers of single-handed sailing around the globe. In this report by Margherita Pelaschier, her search of history brought together two iconic adventurers: For boats from 32 to 55 feet with an IRC rating below 1.370, a pursuit start over 11 weeks begins in A Coruña, Spain, with the first boat to return deemed the winner.
The inaugural Global Solo Challenge 2023-24 seeks to be a budget-friendly solo, non-stop race around the world.
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