The Golden Globe Race and a fateful entry
In 1968, The Sunday Times launched what would become one of the most ambitious sailing competitions ever conceived. The Golden Globe Race challenged sailors to complete the first solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe. Two prizes were on offer: a trophy for the first to finish and £5,000 for the fastest time. Sir Francis Chichester had completed his solo voyage around the world the previous year, stopping only once in Australia, and the British press was hungry for the next chapter. A non-stop solo circumnavigation represented the next frontier, a test of endurance that many believed impossible.
Among the nine competitors who set out was Donald Crowhurst, a 36 year old electronics businessman from Bridgwater in Somerset. Unlike seasoned sailors such as Robin Knox-Johnston and Bernard Moitessier, Crowhurst was a weekend sailor with limited offshore experience. His entry would lead to one of sailing's strangest and most tragic stories.
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Crowhurst planned to compete in a trimaran called Teignmouth Electron, based on a design by Arthur Piver with modifications by Crowhurst himself. The three hulled vessel was meant to give him a speed advantage over traditional monohulls. However, the boat was far from ready when the race deadline approached.
The rules stated that competitors had to depart by 31 October 1968 to qualify. Crowhurst faced a difficult choice. His trimaran was incomplete, with serious defects in its construction and equipment. His buoyancy bag system, designed to right the boat if it capsized, proved impractical and too cumbersome to function as intended.
Financial pressures weighed heavily. Crowhurst had invested everything in the venture and secured sponsorship from a local businessman, Stanley Best, who held a lien on his house and business. Withdrawing from the race would mean financial ruin for his family. On 31 October, Crowhurst set sail from Teignmouth in Devon, knowing his boat was not fit for the Southern Ocean.
Problems emerged almost immediately. The hatches leaked, equipment failed, and the self-righting system proved unworkable. Within weeks, it became clear that Teignmouth Electron could not survive the savage conditions ahead.
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Deception in the Atlantic
What happened next has been pieced together from Crowhurst's logbooks, recovered after his death. Rather than admit defeat and return home, he began to falsify his position reports.
Crowhurst stayed in the Atlantic while sending false positions that suggested he was making impressive progress toward the Southern Ocean. Without a functioning long range radio, he transmitted updates via short range radio when near other vessels or land. He maintained two logbooks: one recording his actual position, the other containing the fictional voyage he reported to race officials and the press.
His plan, as far as investigators could later determine, was to wait in the South Atlantic while the other competitors completed their circumnavigations. He would then rejoin the race and finish in a respectable middle position, where his logbooks would face less scrutiny than those of a winner.
For months, Crowhurst drifted in the Atlantic, maintaining radio silence for long periods which he attributed to equipment problems. Back in Britain, newspapers reported his apparent progress with growing interest. His family waited anxiously for news.
The deception began to consume him as the months passed. Other competitors dropped out or were disqualified. Nigel Tetley, believing Crowhurst was close behind him, pushed his own trimaran too hard and it broke apart near the Azores. Robin Knox-Johnston completed the course but his slower time meant he could not win the speed prize.
Crowhurst suddenly found himself positioned to win. Victory would bring intense scrutiny and certain exposure of his fraud.
A tragic end
Crowhurst's logbooks from his final weeks reveal troubling signs of distress. His writings increasingly departed from sailing matters, filled with rambling philosophical passages about time, God, and the nature of existence. These abstract musings suggest a man struggling badly during his months of isolation and deception.
On 10 July 1969, Teignmouth Electron was found drifting in the Atlantic by a passing cargo ship. The boat was intact and the logbooks were on board, but Crowhurst was gone. He is presumed to have taken his own life by stepping off the boat into the sea.
The full story emerged when investigators examined his logbooks and found the evidence of his false positions. His widow Clare and their four children were left to cope with grief compounded by public revelation of his deception.
Robin Knox-Johnston, the only competitor to complete the course, was awarded both the Golden Globe trophy and the £5,000 prize for fastest time. In a gesture that spoke to the tragedy of the situation, he donated the prize money to the Crowhurst family.
The story of Donald Crowhurst raises difficult questions about pressure, ambition, and mental health that continue to resonate in sailing circles. He was not a villain but a man who made a desperate decision and found himself trapped by its consequences. His tale has influenced how the sailing community thinks about proper preparation and the psychological toll of solo voyaging, serving as a reminder that deadlines should never override safety in serious offshore ventures. The Golden Globe Race was revived in 2018, with organisers citing the Crowhurst story as part of its complex legacy.
Many locals felt a shame in how he had duped everyone and lied to the media .
Years later with hindsight it's easier now to fully access the madness that prevailed during those last years of the 1960's .
Your article is very definite in the history of Crowhurst's failed trek , stating much as absolute fact but I do need to take umbrage with you about his end days and your statement 'he through himself overboard ' ...
There is absolutely no evidence at all that he did this , absolutely none at all .
There is much written , recorded and filmed evidence that he was slowly sinking into a psychotic , delusionary mental state with withdrawing from a logical cognitive functioning ability ...This becomes quite clear listening to the tape recordings he made in his final days on board the boat .
Rambling references to the 'other' , to some type of religious awakening and the idea that the physical sate he and his boat were in were 'nothing to worry about because he would enter some other realm which was the purpose of his trip in the first place ' ...
Suicide never came into any of his ramblings at all .
My feeling is as he had run out of fresh water he could have been drinking sea water and this can effect the mental state with toxic confusion and hallucinations .
He could in this state have become very confused and tripped falling off the deck and ultimately drowned but to state he decided to 'throw himself overboard ' is a bit too much of a poetic licence . ...Nobody knows what happened , and nobody ever will ...
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