Single Handed Sailing

Sailing my Sigma 33 Graphix from Suffolk Yacht Harbour out to Gunfleet Sand.

Couldn’t find out much info on this boat, just some folk boat class race results.

This is my boat Graphix, purchased in January this year. She’s a deep fin keeled fractionally rigged sloop designed by David Thomas introduced in 1978. 

Outtakes from the film "American Challenge" about the 1980 OSTAR race.

Bernard Moitessier's 39 foot steel ketch in which he embarked on his legendary circumnavigation. After rounding Cape Horn he passed up a chance at instant fame and a world record, and sailed on for three more months setting a record for the longest nonstop passage by a yacht. A total of 37,455 nautical miles in 10 months. He contemplated rounding the Horn again. However, he decided that he and Joshua had had enough and, on 21 June 1969, put in at Tahiti.

Christian has since written a excellent book entitled "Alone Together: Sailing Solo to Hawaii and Beyond" about his adventure. Here.

He has documented many of his voyages as well as the making of Mingming II on his youtube channel here.

An advert for the iconic Contessa 26 and 32 from the 1972 OSTAR brochure.

In 1960, Hasler competed in the first Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR), from Plymouth to New York. The race, originated solely by Hasler, did not include any "half a crown" bet as the myth suggests with Francis Chichester the fourth of the five competitors to enter the race. Of the fifty yachtsmen who sent letters of intent to compete, only five eventually started. Hasler himself sailed one of the smallest boats in the race, his heavily modified Nordic Folkboat Jester (above), and finished second in 48 days to Chichester's much larger Gipsy Moth III. Jester was equipped with Hasler's self-steering system.

Trekka completed two more circumnavigations with different owners. She is now held by the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. At present she is being re-furbished for the Museum by Tony Grove, a Canadian craftsman and boat builder.