Berkhamsted School is quite remarkable. Apart from Graham Greene, it has produced two of our greatest sea-faring adventurers: Bill Tilman and Robin Knox-Johnston. They were very different, Tilman was primarily a mountaineer who took to the sea in later life. Born 17th March 1939, in Putney, Robin was the eldest of 4 brothers and went to sea much earlier, joining the RNVR as a schoolboy to ensure the destination for his National Service. Since that time he has rarely been far from the sea. He has, however, dabbled in climbing with Chris Bonington.

Years were spent learning about the sea in boats large and small. In those days it was believed that learning to sail in small boats was the way you might have to survive. He was soon a deck officer in the British India Company and took his Mate’s and Master’s certificates as he progressed, taking time off to pass the former and to get married to his childhood sweetheart, Suzanne, in 1962.

Around this time he had begun to build Suhaili in Bombay but she was incomplete when war broke out between India and Pakistan in 1965 invalidating his insurance and so he went back to complete her.

The voyage to the UK in the robust ketch he had built brought Suhaili ready for the start of the first Golden Globe race. He then took off in the solo race that brought his name to the general public as the first man to sail single handed round the world non stop, reaching Falmouth on 22 April 1969. It is characteristic of the man that the prize money went without hesitation to the family of the ill-fated Donald Crowhurst.

After many years as a professional seaman, he left and spent several years developing marinas, including Mercury on the Hamble, St Katherine’s Dock and Troon. Commercial activity moved on to Clipper Ventures into which he put much time and money over the years and has successfully brought so many people to sailing. In the midst of this busy life he still found time to embark on amazing ventures such as co-skippering the fastest, at the time, circumnavigation with Sir Peter Blake, and the multi-skilled adventures retold in Sea Ice and Rock

His reputation as a man of the sea with a great heart and care for others less fortunate has continued to grow. He was made CBE and was Yachtsman of the Year in 1969. Other honours have followed. 1992 was a good year: he became President of the Sail Training Association, was made Freeman of the City of London, gained an Honorary Doctorate at Southampton University and became Honorary Member of the Cruising Association. He was knighted in 1995 as well as being Yachtsman of the Year once more and ISAF Sailor of the Year. In 2007 he was one of the first six to be inducted into the ISAF Hall of Fame.

Throughout his career, Suzanne was his supportive partner. Tragically, Suzanne died in 2003, and Robin admits to the void that was left. Their daughter and five grandchildren are close. He pulled through with his latest adventure, described in his book Force of Nature, by sailing alone once again around the world in the Velux 5 Oceans Race, some 30 years after the first occasion in the Golden Globe, by far the oldest person to have attempted this.

Despite these amazing and daunting feats, he somehow seems to be a sailor in touch with life as we know it. He is famous for on-board curries and refusal to travel without an adequate supply of scotch: an approachable man who has the same mistrust of the new fangled as do the rest of us older and crustier and far less brave sailors. He has said that now he will only consider cruising. He epitomizes many of the values that we hold dear. Not a bad bloke to have as President in our centenary year.
MD