Suhali returns to Falmouth

by MRP on 6 Dec 2001 SUHAILI, the first boat to ever sail non-stop around the world, has returned
to Falmouth for a major re-fit. For the past 3 years she has been on
display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The re-fit work will
be carried out by Pendennis Shipyard, largely by the apprentices, with some
help from the students of The College of Falmouth, giving both invaluable on
the job training. Upon completion the celebrated yacht will be based at the
new National Maritime Museum-Cornwall in Falmouth.

On April 22nd 1969, Suhaili sailed into Falmouth to complete her epic
voyage. 312 days earlier she had set out, the third of 9 yachts that sailed
in 1968 to try to become the first to sail non-stop around the world.
Described by the “Sunday Times” as a scruffy little ketch, and by others as
the tortoise amongst the hares, she plugged steadily on whilst her larger,
more glamorous and sponsored competitors pulled out one by one. Suhaili was
the only boat to finish.

Built in India between 1963 and 1965 by her owner, Robin Knox-Johnston, then
a deck officer with the British India Steam Navigation Company, and sailed
home via the Cape of Good Hope, Suhaili did not look like the favourite to
win the Sunday Times Golden Globe Trophy. But her rugged teak construction
and lack of any sophisticated instruments or equipment proved to be her
greatest advantages. Although badly damaged in a storm in the Roaring
Forties of the Southern Ocean, Suhaili was bolted together again and
continued for another four months in those watery Himalayas until she
rounded Cape Horn into the comparatively sheltered waters of the Atlantic
and her run home. Her radio broke down after 10 weeks, all the fresh water
became polluted, and from then on, apart from sightings off Australia and
New Zealand, she was not heard of again until she met a British tanker off
the Azores.

Robin Knox-Johnston’s response to the customs officers question as to where
he was from as Suhaili entered Falmouth roads was one word - “Falmouth”.

Apart from sailing back from India and around the world, Suhaili crossed the
Atlantic using only 15th Century navigation instruments, which earned her
owner the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of Navigation, and she sailed to
Greenland in a joint climbing/sailing expedition with Sir Chris Bonington.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has also used her for extensive family cruising
around the UK and Europe.

Suhaili has now returned to her spiritual home to be made ready for sea
again, it is hoped that she will be ready in time to participate in the 2002
Falmouth Classic.