Gipsy Moth sets sail

[jamesjermain]

Hundreds of people lined Plymouth Hoe this afternoon as an Armada of small craft escorted the refurbished Gipsy Moth over the start line for her second circumnavigation.

Just 304 days since she was lifted out of her concrete coffin in Greenwich, Sir Frances Chichester’s historic yawl passed the minesweeper HMS Middleton to the firing of guns and a blare of sirens signalling the start of her epic voyage. A Gipsy Moth biplane flew overhead while a fire tender saluted her with a curtain of water. She was escorted by craft as diverse as an RNLI lifeboat, a pilot tender, an old gaffers and laser dinghies.

The old lady, whose restoration was the brain child of YM Editor Paul Gelder, was in her element as she stormed out of Plymouth Sound into a stiff south westerly making over seven knots close hauled. The sun sparkled on the white flecked Sound as Gipsy Moth played up to a battery of film cameras and press photographers. Paul Gelder was among the crew for the first leg to Gibraltar where she is joining the Blue Water Round the World Rally via the Panama and Suez canals. The crew also included three youngsters from the Isle of Wight, the chief sponsors, Plymouth and Glasgow

The project has been masterminded by David Green of the UKSA, which will become the custodian of John Illingworth’s stunning, if flawed, design.

Gypsy Moth’s progress can be followed on the Gipsy Moth and Yachting Monthly websites: www.gipsymoth.org and www.yachtingmonthly.com

It really was a thrilling sight and one which will have engendered real pride among the hundreds who have worked tirelessly to bring this great venture to the starting line.

 

[l'escargot]

Here she is quietly leaving Southampton Boatshow on Thursday:

 

[Rob_Webb]

Did anyone ever succinctly explain why she was such a dog?

 

[Ships_Cat]

Personally I think that keeping within the perspective of the general yacht design knowledge at the time (1965'ish), most of the vessel's inadequacies came about because of the task set for her and Chichester's own requirements.

Basically the design brief was a boat that would get around the world fast (match the clipper times), solo crew, have a broken up sailplan of max areas required by Chichester, and be able to be handled by a 65 years old man. So the boat ended up with a long waterline length and narrow beam to get speed. Displacement was kept low for the time. So the first "fault" of being too tender ( a common trait of race boats of her era) and the later matters of being a bit of a handful were probably to be expected - she was not designed to be a comfy cruising boat but to meet the demands of a time trial. I think from reading Chichester's book that her tenderness was probably the most tiresome aspect of her behaviour coupled with the unbalanced sailplan (which possibly came about because of Chichester's own requirements as to its subdivision into small bits).

I do not know if anyone has suggested what the design should have been like within the constraints of the design knowledge back then, but I have never seen any suggestions. Today, of course, the boat would have been very different and different materials, but whatever it would not have been a Volvo 60 or whatever as Chichester could never of handled it.

I suspect, but do not know, that GM IV was the first boat specifically designed for a solo fast round the world voyage (albeit with one planned stop and compromised by Chichester's age). An important design, purely from that point of view perhaps?

John

 

[ytd]

what I remember from his book is that the gimballed nav seat designed to give him some respite from living at 45 degs failed and it was not easy living at 45 degs.