I well remember watching, at the age of 11, lone sailor Francis Chichester sail into Plymouth, England, at the end of his solo circumnavigation. In the weeks and months before, we had seen the story unfold on our TV screen and marveled that one man could sail what I then considered to be an enormous boat singlehanded. Upon stepping ashore Chichester was knighted by the queen, and later his boat was put on display in dry dock at Greenwich; no one expected the boat would ever sail again.
But sail again she did. This book, written by <I>Yachting Monthly</I> editor Paul Gelder, illustrates in words and lavish photography the rescue of the iconic boat from a concrete dock where she was slowly rotting away to once again sail around the world. (She was wrecked in the Pacific and repaired at Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup base before completing her voyage.)
The first section should inspire anyone working on his or her own project, while the second shows what hard labor and determination can achieve. You might buy this book for the photos alone, but reading it will give you the whole remarkable story.
