Philip and Ros

Philip Davenport appeared at Tower Bridge in London in September 1951 having sailed his 46' cutter Waltzing Matilda more than 16,000 miles from Sydney in Australia to take part in the Fastnet Race that year. He was an airline pilot who had flown in the Second World War and had recently married Rosetta, who agreed to come with him on this challenging voyage. The crew was made up by his brother Keith and a work colleague Don.

Sailing round the world had long been a dream and it wasn't till 1948 that he had saved enough to buy a suitable boat which he then used successfully in a number of offshore races. After a hectic fitting out for a round the world trip, they set off for Auckland at the end of October 1950, and reached it after braving a 70mph gale which had left passenger liners hove to.

On New Year's Eve they set out from New Zealand for Chile to face the gales of the “Roaring Forties”, which they had in abundance, and were running out of food before they reached Cape Raper in Patagonia. But they mostly had to be content with what they could catch before heading through the channels of the archipelago to Cape Horn which provided the inevitable gales and close encounters before they made it to Punto Arenas which had an English speaking community. From there they sailed via Buenos Aires (where they experienced a pampero) Rio de Janeiro and Recife.

Waltzing Matilda

Their trip across the Atlantic was generally slow till they saw the Lizard light and arrived at the Solent on 2^nd August, not much more than a week before the Fastnet Race. Amazingly Philip managed to drum up a cosmopolitan racing crew and were one of the sixteen finishers that year.

Here the story as we know it currently is nearly at an end. After visiting London and the CA, they found moorings in the Medway for the winter and Philip wrote a book “The Voyage of 'Waltzing Matilda'” which is in the CA library. The best memories of CA members are that Philip and Rosetta lingered in London. started a family and returned to Australia by more conventional means without completing a circumnavigation. A PO Box in Australia that was our only contact for many years has produced no answers. So we can't be sure that he is still one of our honorary members – he would be around ninety by now. Maybe someone will see this and tell us.

CM