Single-handed sailing

In practice, faking such a voyage, along with all of the detailed logs, workings of celestial navigation sights, radio check-ins at various places, and so on, would be virtually impossible; however, in the Golden Globe Race, one competitor did actually attempt this.

This is true many times over for competitive sailors; for example, Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher monohull, in which she completed the 2000 Vendée Globe, has an upwind sail area of 237 m2 (2,550 sq ft), as compared to a conservative recreational round-the-world yacht such as a Westsail 32, which has a sail area of only 59 m2 (640 sq ft), despite these two boats having virtually the same displacement (weight), at around 9,000 kilograms (20,000 lb).

Staying on the boat (by careful and thorough use of handholds, lifelines, and tethers) is undoubtedly the best approach for any sailor, but some single-handers tow a rope astern, as a last desperate chance if they should fall overboard.

Additionally the most modern autopilot systems eg NKE Gyropilot have – or can have added as a retro-fit option – remote control handsets which not only allows the autopilot to be remotely controlled from anywhere on the boat but also detects when an individual carrying/wearing one goes over board, sounding the alarm and, depending on type of installation and mode selected, either turning the boat into the wind or locking the rudder hard over on the opposite tack causing the yacht to stall/forereach, in both cases preventing the boat from continuing on its route and allowing a conscious MOB the possibility of getting back aboard.

One of the greatest challenges facing a lone sailor is managing the need to sleep, since a good watch must be kept at all times while at sea.

[citation needed] Recreational sailors usually choose a more tropical route (through the Panama Canal) closer to land and have to keep a better lookout for shipping.

In recent years the Automatic Identification System has become available to non-commercial shipping, providing advance warning of collision risks.

The recorded history of modern single-handed voyages begins with an American sailor, Josiah Shackford, who is reported to have sailed from France to Surinam, in South America, although this has not been reliably authenticated.

Crenston, who is reported to have sailed a 40-foot (12 m) boat from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to San Francisco (whether by Cape Horn or the Strait of Magellan is unknown).

[17] Single-handed sailing received a great impetus in the middle of the 19th century, when it was popularised by three British sailors, R.T. McMullen, John MacGregor and Frank Cowper.

Although neither man made a major single-handed offshore passage, MacGregor achieved some fame for sailing a 21-foot (6 m) yawl from London to Paris and back in 1867.

[25][26] In 1882, Bernard Gilboy sailed a 19-foot (6 m) schooner that he built himself from San Francisco 7,000 miles (11,265 km) across the Pacific in 162 days until he was picked up exhausted and starving off Queensland, Australia, after a swordfish pierced his hull and he lost the rudder.

[29] The sport of long-distance single-handed sailing was firmly established with the famous voyage of Joshua Slocum, who circumnavigated the world between 1895 and 1898.

Despite widespread opinion that such a voyage was impossible (there was no Panama Canal then), Slocum, a retired sea captain, rebuilt a 37-foot (11 m) sloop, Spray, and sailed it around the world—the first single-handed circumnavigation of the world.

He had only the most basic and makeshift gear; he had no radio, for fear of being shot as a spy, and was forced to stuff his clothes with newspaper to keep warm.

[31] In 1955, the Filipino immigrant to Hawaii, Florentino Das set out on a home-built 27-footer from Kewalo Basin to his hometown of Allen, Northern Samar, Philippines.

This was a revolutionary concept at the time, as the idea was thought to be extremely impractical, particularly in the adverse conditions of their proposed route—a westward crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean.

Hasler's wind-vane self-steering gear revolutionised short-handed sailing, and his other major innovation—using a junk rig for safer and more manageable shorthanded sailing—influenced many subsequent sailors.

The winner on that occasion, Eric Tabarly, sailed in the first ever boat specifically designed for single-handed ocean racing, the 44-foot (13 m) ketch Pen Duick II.

Of the nine boats which started: The first woman to sail from Los Angeles to Hawaii was Sharon Sites Adams, in 1965 with a 25-foot Danish folkboat.

She added to this feat in 1969 by sailing a Sea Sharp II fiberglass Mariner 31 from Yokosuka, Japan, to San Diego, CA in 1969.

[39] Despite his failure in the Golden Globe, Chay Blyth had decided that endurance sailing was for him, and in 1970–1971 he made the first westabout single-handed non-stop circumnavigation via the great capes, i.e., against the prevailing winds of the roaring forties.

Poland's Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz set off to sail around the world by the trade-wind route in 1976 and on her return to the Canary Islands in 1978 became the first woman to perform a single-handed circumnavigation (with stops).

[40] The first woman to win overall a single-handed ocean race was Florence Arthaud, who won the Route du Rhum (Saint-Malo, France, to Pointe-à-Pitre, French Caribbean) in 1990.

[42] The inaugural event was won by Titouan Lamazou of France, in Ecureuil d'Aquitaine II, with a time of 109 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes.

Rule #5 – Every vessel must at all times keep a proper look-out by sight, hearing, and all available means in order to judge if risk of collision exists.

Unmanned ocean-going drones already exist and will become routine within the next few decades, and those watch-keeping technologies will become available to single-handed sailors to ameliorate legal issues arising from the failure to maintain a constant human watch.

With a spate of teenagers attempting to break the age record for sailing singlehanded around the world, their parents have come under criticism and legal challenges for allowing their offspring to engage in such potentially dangerous activity.