The strange last voyage of Donald Crowhurst
by Nicholas Tomalin, Ron Hall · first published 1970
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Gripping account of the 1968 Golden Globe solo round-the-world race and the sailor who faked his progress; recommended for readers drawn to stories of failure, ambition and solo sailing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"In early 1968, desperate entrepreneur Donald Crowhurst was trying to sell a nautical navigation device he had developed when he saw that the Sunday Times would be sponsoring the Golden Globe Race, the first ever solo, round-the-world sailing competition. An avid amateur sailor, Crowhurst sensed a marketing opportunity and shocked the world by entering the competition using an untested trimaran of his own design. Shock soon turned to amazement when he quickly took the lead, checking in by radio message from locations far ahead of his seasoned competitors. But on July 10, 1969, roughly eight mo
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And a third, with a slightly different ending, that may serve as a signpost to geeks with a predilection to romanticize working alone: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Last-Voyage-Donald-Crowhurst/d...)
on “SpaceX update: The engine did not explode” ↗I read The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst in high school, and can recommend that as well.
on ““They Went to Sea in a Sieve, They Did”” ↗I cannot recommend 'The Long Way' by Bernard Moitessier & 'The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst' highly enough. Both books cover how 2 contestants in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race could have won but did not, for rather interesting/different reasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Times_Golden_Globe_Race…
on “Confessions of a Long-Distance sailor ” ↗If you're interested in a book about massive failure - read the story of Donald Crowhurst (The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst is the book, there is also a documentary out there). It's hard to tell much without spoiling it, but basically, a highly publicized sailing competition was sponsored in the mid 20th century to see who…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…(the first part of the book). In short nature diversifies in good times, to stock resilience for weathering the bad times. Just a few chapters in, waiting for that hope to kick in any minute... "The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" - This story is about the first round-the-world solo yacht race, and the one contestant who died at sea. His story is really strange - an anti-hero tragedy with a touch of mental illness. The author…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗