The Volvo Ocean Race - How it got started

There was a feeling of apprehension and nervous exhilaration as 17 race yachts, carrying 167 crew from seven different nations, hoisted their spinnakers on the way out from Portsmouth into the English Channel on the first leg of a brand new sporting contest, the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. The race was conceived and organised by the Royal Naval Sailing Association with sponsorship from the London-based brewery company and was the first ever attempt at a global, crewed yacht race.

The yachts, ranging from the 1936-built Peter Von Danzig of Germany, to the UK’s Burton Cutter, which was still being finished during the race, were no different from many of the 3,000 spectator boats that set out to witness the historic start. Crews were mostly adventure-driven novices, with limited experience of offshore sailing and absolutely no idea what lay ahead over the coming 27,500 nms.

Most of the skippers, by contrast, had thousands of sea miles under their belts. Skippers like Chay Blyth, a pugnacious sergeant of the British Army who had first achieved notoriety in 1966 when he rowed the Atlantic with Captain John Ridgeway in a six meter dory. Two years before the start of the Whitbread, he had also become the first person to sail non-stop westwards around the world aboard the 21 meter ketch British Steel, a feat which had made him a household name. On board Great Britain II, funded by Bahamian philanthropist ‘Union’ Jack Hayward, Blyth had a crew of ‘Red Berets’ from the parachute regiment – all of them supremely fit beefcake types known for withstanding the toughest challenges, but not known for their sailing skills.

Since the idea for the race had grown out of discussions at the RNSA, it was no surprise that the British Armed Forces were well represented with three entries, but there were two others from Britain. Ex-naval yachtsman Les Williams, who with Robin Knox-Johnston had won the 1970 Round Britain Race, headed up one of these crews on Burton Cutter, at 24 meters the biggest yacht in the fleet and Roddy Ainslie, a keen sailor from Macclesfield had put together the Second Life syndicate with his brother-in-law Ian Butterworth and found 12 paying passengers to take their Ocean 71 around the course.

“Everyone paid £3,000 each and the entire project cost £40,000,” recalled Ainslie. “It was not enough for us to think about winning so we were just thinking about getting round the world. That was paramount, which was why we chartered Second Life. It was a proven design and of proven construction. Our crew was not very experienced so we were a bit apprehensive when we set out from Portsmouth.

“There was a mass of spectator craft out in the Solent - that came as a surprise. We were not expecting so many people and it made it difficult to steer especially since there was no marshalling to speak of. We almost ran down a rubber dinghy, but managed somehow to avoid it at the last minute.”

From the French navy there was Eric Tabarly, who was already a national sporting hero. He had bought and restored an old Fife Cutter in the 1960’s, naming her Pen Duick, and was now on his sixth upgrade, a powerful 22 meter ketch, but her controversial depleted uranium ballast keel had been outlawed by the race authorities and his qualification at the start was uncertain. Four other French boats lined up at the start along with three from Italy, two from Poland and one each from Germany and South Africa.

All the crewmembers on Peter Von Danzig were either students or graduates from Akademischer-Segler-Verein - a sailing school - and had to pay £500 to compete, also having put in between 3,000 and 4,000 hours to build the boat. The crew on Polish entry Otago were all workers from the Gdansk shipyard with no experience of sailing.

The French boat 33 Export started without Dominic Rulhe, a Brazilian who was killed in the Varig Boeing aircrash at Orly Airport on his way to join the yacht for the start.