The Longest Race

During the late summer and fall of 1968, nine men, each in a small sailing vessel, set out on what was to be a solo nonstop, round-the-world sailboat race. One finished, one perished in circumstances both mysterious and dramatic. Hal Roth, himself a deep-water sailor and the author of books about his own voyages, has gathered together the whole story of the nine and their adventures. In a masterful display of narrative skill, he involves the reader in each story. We experience the agony of Donald Crowhurst, who was emotionally and physically unprepared for the voyage and who, in desperation, made a decision that destroyed him. We are with Robin Knox-Johnston, holding together a slowly disintegrating boat, fighting through storms and calms, able to live alone for months, and finally staggering back into Plymouth, the winner and only finisher. We live with the nearly mysterious Bernard Moitessier, a superb sailor who, when nearly three-quarters of the way around the world, suddenly turned around and returned to French Polynesia, where he lived for eleven years.They are all here. It is a thrilling account of what has become one of the classic true adventures of our time