The 1969 Golden Globe is a difficult race to tell. Indeed, that year 9 sailors set sail without any unit, time or place. With the same objective for each of them, but different means, they wanted to succeed in the first solo round the world race through the three capes.
The daily Sunday Time had the idea to propose a prize to reward the best. Although each of the sailors had this award in mind, none of the sailors registered and each took off on a different date in the summer of 1969.
In this book,"69 Heroic Years" Olivier Le Carrer tells the story of this wonderful adventure seen from the earth. As a teenager at that time, he described to us the lack of reliable information that we could have had, given the little communication that existed with the boats.
And even if we already know the end with the victory of Robin Knox-Johnston in 313 days, even if we have already read everything about Bernard Moitessier's choice to prolong his navigation, turning his back on civilisation, even if Crowhurst's incredible odyssey ended with his suicide and now known, all these adventures remain engraved in the memories of today's sailors.
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the start of the race and a new race (the Golden Globe Race) is organized for this occasion, this book reminds us of the nine incredible destinies of these heroes.
But this story leaves us a little hungry. Indeed, the author tells us"his" race seen from the earth and his research in the newspapers to try to follow the race. In doing so, he passes many details and anecdotes of the race under silence. All these anecdotes and details exist in a very good book "Golden Globe" by Peter Nichols published by Glénat and translated by Gérard Janichon, a contemporary of this period and a great sailor. The quality of the highly documented story and the quality translation make it a great book. Unfortunately, this book is no longer available and only a few copies are available on occasion. Olivier Le Carrer's book partly fills this unavailability.
69 Heroic Year - Olivier Le Carrer
Paulsen Publishing
250 pages
15.2 x 21.1 cm
21,00 €
