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Great yacht design 12 – Gipsy Moth IV

Gipsy Moth IV, Francis Chichester’s cantankerous ketch, is one of the most controversial of all yacht designs

Contradictory design parameters mean that Gipsy Moth IV  is an interesting case study, but not such a pleasant sail.

Having just won the first singlehanded transatlantic race in 1960, Francis Chichester wrote “I think my yacht is too big for single handed sailing… A 9-tonner is the ideal size, in my opinion”. His yacht for that (and the 1964 race) was the Robert Clark design Gipsy Moth III which was 13 tons (Thames), so Chichester was advocating a considerably smaller boat. When he had the opportunity to build a custom yacht in 1965 specifically to sail around the world single-handed, he commissioned the design from the partnership of John Illingworth (who had redesigned Gipsy Moth III’s mast) & Angus Primrose. The design and build process was difficult.

The final design was stretched to 10.4 tons displacement (and 18.5 tons Thames, more than twice what Chichester had originally asked for); when Chichester protested, Illingworth explained that due to her length she would be easily driven. Chichester also complained about the proposed separate rudder, so it was agreed to extend the keel so the rudder could hang off the sternpost. It sounds like a most curious way for the design to evolve, and things did not improve. When she was launched she proved horribly tender. Forced into adding a ton to the keel, she was eventually 11.5 tons displacement. A whole chapter of his book “Gipsy Moth Circles the World” is devoted to a detailed discussion of the problems

In “Further Offshore” (1969) Illingworth replied to Chichester’s version of events. Illingworth had advocated a schooner rig, but Chichester insisted on ketch, and limited the maximum size of the working sails for handling reasons (Chichester was 64 and had a long history of health problems). Working from the sail plan to derive the hull shape, Primrose went for length to generate speed potential, but was handicapped by Chichester’s resistance to a larger boat; the result was very narrow and, with insufficient ballast, tender. The extra ton of ballast rectified things, in Illingworth’s opinion, so the result was “very adequately stable”; but Chichester was still far from happy with her stability and (with the rig size by then fixed) felt she was also now under-canvassed.

The parameters are telling. A beam / length ratio of 0.27 is narrow, and ballast ratios associated with this length / beam ratio are more usually approaching 50% (or more) to provide the necessary righting moment; in any event, waterline beam effectively determines initial stability, so this was always going to be a boat that tended to sail at a large angle of heel.

By keeping her light, Primrose was evidently trying to minimise wetted surface area, but Chichester’s insistence on a long keel offset that at a stroke. The “bite” from the aft end of the keel was presumably part of the same thinking, but it was filled in when she reached Sydney in an attempt to improve her directional stability; Chichester complained that she rolled (a characteristic she shared with Dorade) and tended to broach when off the wind. Other complaints were that the helm was impossibly heavy, that she would hobby-horse in moderate seas, was very sensitive to sail area, trim and heel angle, had a tendency to slam on the wind, would not point in any sort of sea, and would not run downwind under bare poles. The remarkably fine waterlines, especially aft, are certainly contributory to some of the behavioural quirks, but Chichester’s complaints are evidently exacerbated by his antagonism to the design; he obviously took against it from the start, and was quick to damn and slow to praise as a result. On the other hand he recorded some fine runs; 190 miles in the first 25 hours (average 7.6 knots), 1,400 miles in eight days; and the pairing completed the 29,630 mile circumnavigation in 226 days of sailing. A twitchy, flawed thoroughbred for a man that wanted a steady pony, perhaps, but she makes an interesting study in the art and science of yacht design.

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Gipsy Moth IV

One of the most famous sailors of his day, Sir Francis Chichester broke seven records when he sailed Gipsy Moth IV 29,360 miles around the earth in nine months and a day.

See artefacts from the voyage

Visit the  Buckler’s Hard Museum  to discover the full facts of the dramatic Gipsy IV story – which included several floodings and a capsizing!

THE GIPSY MOTH IV STORY

The dream is born

Sir Francis Chichester became a mooring holder on the  Beaulieu River  in the 1950s with his yachts Gipsy Moth II and Gipsy Moth III, named after the de Havilland Gipsy Moth aircraft which he’d flown in the 1920s and 1930s.

Preparations

Chichester commissioned a new yacht for the journey, a 54ft ketch he named Gipsy Moth IV. Built by Camper & Nicholson’s boatyard in Gosport, Gipsy Moth IV was specially designed by John Illingworth and Angus Primrose to deal with the pressures of an extended solo voyage.

Intense preparations for the journey were soon underway, with local people playing a vital role in areas such as the rigging and food supplies. Buckler’s Hard shopkeeper Mrs Rhoda Martin was tasked with preserving eggs for his journey (an assignment that involved covering the shells with liquid paraffin) as well as de-eyeing hundreds of potatoes to prevent them from sprouting.

In a transcript of an interview with Mrs Martin in 1991, she said: “He said to me ‘Mrs Martin, I’ve got some eggs that you preserved for me that are good now but eggs I bought in Plymouth have gone bad’.”

They’re off!

After some last-minute alterations to the ballast in Gipsy Moth’s keel, 64-year-old Chichester set out from Buckler’s Hard for trials on the Solent on 12th August 1966 before finally leaving Plymouth on August 27th to begin his journey around the globe.

Chichester spent 226 days at sea, with only one stop in Sydney, but the voyage was by no means smooth sailing… The self-steering mechanism broke during storms, forcing Chichester to rig up a system of his own design, and at the start of his return journey Gipsy Moth IV capsized after being hit by a freak wave.

After battling through several floodings (and also having celebrated his 65th birthday) the sailor and former aviator finally returned to Buckler’s Hard on September 17th the following year. He and Gipsy Moth IV had travelled a staggering 29,630 miles.

The return to Buckler’s Hard

Sir Francis Chichester and Gipsy Moth IV returned to Buckler’s Hard on 17th September 1967, his 66th birthday.

The aftermath

After her return, Gipsy Moth IV was preserved alongside Cutty Sark at Greenwich but, in need of restoration by the beginning of the century, was sold for £1 and a gin and tonic (Sir Francis Chichester’s favourite tipple) to the UK Sailing Academy in Cowes. Camper & Nicholson, her original boat builder in Gosport, carried out the £400,000 refit before a further drama-packed round-the-world voyage was undertaken for educational purposes.

Chichester was honoured on a postage stamp, which showed him aboard Gipsy Moth IV, and more recently Gipsy Moth IV has been featured in the British passport.

The Gipsy Moth IV records

• Fastest voyage around the world in a small vessel – almost twice as fast as the previous record
• First true solo circumnavigation of the world via the Capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn
• Longest passage made by a small vessel without calling in to port – on the homeward leg from Sydney to Plymouth 15,250 miles
• Longest passage made by a solo sailor without calling in to port – on the homeward leg, almost twice as long as the previous record
• Longest distance covered by a solo sailor in a week – twice broke the record by more than 100 miles
• Fastest solo speed record for a long passage – twice broke the record, going from Plymouth to Sydney in 107 days at an average of 131 miles a day and from Sydney to Plymouth in 119 days at an average of 130 miles a day
• Set a solo record by travelling 1,400 miles in 8 days during the voyage

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Gipsy Moth IV and Chichester, the fastest circumnavigation by a small sailboat

When he set off on a solo transatlantic adventure in 1967 aboard the Gipsy Moth IV, the daring Sir Francis Chichester was inspired by the exploits of the 19th century clippers. His adventure left an indelible mark on thousands of people.

Building a sailboat to beat the clipper record

After solo transatlantic races in 1960 and 1964, Sir Francis Chichester, inspired by the clippers of the 19th century, set himself the challenge of beating their records. Tea clippers took an average of 123 days to reach the East Indies. Chichester set himself the goal of sailing in 100 days.

In 1965, he ordered the construction of the Gypsy Moth IV from Gosport-based Camper and Nicholsons, to designs by John Illingworth and Angus Primrose. Launched in March 1966, with yard number 916, the Gypsy Moth IV measures 38 feet - 11.73 m - long at the waterline and 16 m overall. She is built with a cold-molded Honduran mahogany hull. The initial displacement was 10.4 tons, ballasted with an extra ton of ballast to cope with insufficient righting torque. Rigged as a ketch , she boasts a sail area of 79.3 m2 and a 140 m2 spinnaker . She is equipped for single-handed sailing, incorporating innovations such as a tiller-based autopilot system.

An adventure marked by many twists and turns

On August 27, 1966, the 64-year-old British sailor left Plymouth at 11 a.m., bound for Sydney. On November 15, still 2,300 miles from the capital of New South Wales, his autopilot failed. After 107 days and 14,113 miles, the navigator finally arrived in Sydney on December 12.

During the stopover , Sir Chichester called on America's Cup sailboat designer Warwick Hood, who added a part to the keel to improve stability , but to no avail.

He set sail again on January 29, 1967, rounded Cape Horn on March 22 and returned to Plymouth on May 28, 119 days after leaving Australia and having covered 15,517 miles. In all, the sailor covered more than 28,500 miles in just 274 days, including 226 days of actual sailing. He will have faced a number of setbacks, including a capsize at 140° - which the sailor calculated by measuring the mark on the cabin roof made by a wine bottle - 15 m-high waves and gusts in excess of 60 knots.

Rounding Cape Horn , an unforgettable memory

One of the most memorable anecdotes of his voyage was rounding Cape Horn on a 16-m sailing boat. Francis Chicester wrote in the book "Gipsy Moth Circles the World": "For years, it stuck in my mind. Not only did it scare me, it frightened me, but I think it's fair to say it terrified me. For a long time, I told myself that anyone trying to round the Horn on a small yacht must be mad. Of the eight yachts I knew to have attempted it, six had capsized or sanci'd, during or after the passage. I hate being afraid, but even more, I hate being prevented by fear. The Horn had a fearsome fascination and offered one of the world's greatest challenges."

Records galore

The Gipsy Moth IV made history in 1967, setting several records:

• The fastest circumnavigation ever carried out by a small ship,
• The longest non-stop navigation ever made by a small sailboat , 15,000 miles,
• The record for a week of solo racing over 1,000 miles achieved twice,
• The solo speed record , 1,400 miles in 8 days.

A disenchantment with Gipsy Moth IV

Sir Francis' voyage inspired thousands, and over 250,000 people attended his return to Plymouth on May 28, 1967. In early July 1967, he returned to the Thames with his wife, son and Commander Errol Bruce, and was knighted by the Queen at Greenwich on July 7.

On his return, however, he showed little regard for the boat on which he had completed his round-the-world voyage. He even confided in Life Magazine: "Now that I've finished, I don't know what will become of Gipsy Moth IV. I only own the stern, while my cousin owns two-thirds. I'd sell my share any day. It would be better if about a third was sawn off. The boat was too big for me. Gipsy Moth IV has no sentimental value for me. She's temperamental and difficult and needs a crew of three - a man to navigate, an elephant to move the tiller and a 1.1 m chimpanzee with 2.4 m long arms to move underneath and handle some of the equipment."

Chichester died on August 26, 1972 at the age of 71.

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Gipsy Moth IV returns to Greenwich

• September 6, 2005

Dame Ellen MacArthur, Shirley Robertson and Ginnie Chichester sail Gipsy Moth IV up the Thames to Greenwich tomorrow

Dame Ellen McArthur, double Olympic Gold medallist Shirley Robertson and Ginnie Chichester, daughter-in law of Sir Francis, will sail the famous yacht Gipsy Moth IV up the Thames to Greenwich on Wednesday (7 September) to meet another famous lady, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, when Sir Francis Chichester’s yacht Gipsy Moth IV returns to Greenwich for the first time since she left the capital aboard a lorry last November.

Helping to crew the yacht will also be some young people from schools and charities, including Dean Welton, aged 15 from the Ellen McArthur Trust, Robert McClaren aged 16 from Peckham and David Williams from the Isle of Wight , some of whom will sail on a leg of the vessel’s second global circumnavigation which departs from Plymouth on 25 September this year.

To add even more atmosphere to the scene, the original Gypsy Moth bi-plane which flew out to meet Chichester as he completed his record-breaking circumnavigation in 1967, will also be at Greenwich, where Gipsy Moth IV will berth alongside the Cutty Sark pontoon at 12 noon.

Now restored to her former glory, Gipsy Moth IV was a feature at Greenwich for nearly 40 years when she was entombed in concrete dry-dock next to the Cutty Sark, until she was rescued by the United Kingdom Sailing Academy, which waged a relentless campaign to raise the money for an extensive restoration in order to get the vessel back on the water and sailing again.

MacArthur is currently on standby for an attempt on the solo transatlantic record on board her record-breaking trimaran B&Q. B&Q is presently in New York and ready to depart as soon as a suitable weather window is available for the record attempt. MacArthur has managed to take a few hours out of her busy schedule to help sail Gipsy Moth IV to Greenwich. “She is a special boat,” said MacArthur. “It will be fantastic to meet the kids from The Ellen MacArthur Trust who will be taking part in this historic voyage. I didn’t want to miss the chance to be onboard for her return to Greenwich.”

Due to a prior commitment, MacArthur has to leave Greenwich after Gipsy Moth IV docks at 12 noon, but Shirley Robertson and the rest of the crew will just have time to hoist the flags before the arrival of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at 1300.

Her Royal Highness, who re-commissioned Gipsy Moth IV for active service at the Festival of the Sea in June, will view the satellite communications equipment installed with help from BT in preparation for the voyage. The equipment is crucial for the educational aspect of the voyage as it will offer young people a window on the world and provide a medium for young people to communicate across cultures. A sextant will be donated by The Maritime Trust and chronograph for the voyage provided by Corum Swiss Timepieces, the project’s official timekeeper, both crucial for the navigation of the vessel using traditional techniques.

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SAILING A LEGEND

• Gipsy Moth IV

Sailing my childhood dream yacht – Gipsy Moth IV – was a fantasy come true, recalls Kevin Green.

The year is 1968 and my uncle and I watch the TV in the far north of Scotland – black and white images of a yacht surrounded by smaller boats making its way into harbour. The announcer is describing the arrival back in Britain of Francis Chichester after a record-breaking circumnavigation on his yacht Gipsy Moth IV – the first person to singlehandedly sail around the globe via Cape Horn.

It seemed unimaginable to me, as a small boy, what Chichester had done. Of course, Uncle Wullie had been around the globe several times as a merchant seaman, but the realisation that Chichester did it alone inspired me towards sailing from that moment on.

Chichester’s voyage had only one planned stop-over, a place called Sydney, somewhere I’d only vaguely heard of. While wrestling with the boat in Bass Strait he was annoyed to see a motorboat approaching his yawing yacht. On board was yachting journalist Lou d’Alpuget armed with whisky a hinged false panel. It swung open to give access to modern GPS and communications gear.

Opposite on starboard, the galley, with large stove, sink and saltwater pump and lots of sliding doors to hold victuals. Above, a forward-facing window which allowed Chichester to cook while keeping an eye ahead.

In the saloon, a large folding table and benches to seat six. I doubt Chichester spent much time lounging here given the rigours of solo sailing. Beside the table sat a robust paraffin heater – it provided comforting heat that helped sustain him rounding Cape Horn. All lockers had sturdy catches, crucial during her capsize back in 1967.

I could feel Chichester’s presence down here amid the scent of wood and oil because so much was original. When I grabbed some the handrails, I imagined him doing the same as she yawed and rolled her way across the empty wastes of the Southern Ocean – with the Blondie Hasler-inspired self-steering toiling to keep her on course.

Sailing this regal lady was not for the faint-hearted but our incentive to do well was strong, because we had to ‘race’ around the islands to arrive in time for the Whitehaven Beach Party, an event where the receding tide would expose wildlife of the homo sapiens variety, especially around the legendary XXXX beer tent.

Taking the yacht there under the formidable skipper Simon (“Get that sail hoisted, you spineless blaggards!!”) was like waking up in an episode of Hornblower. The crew laboured, Simon swore and the jokes came thick and fast as jovial irreverence, caused by a clash of Australian unfussiness, British naval tradition and Hahn beer.

Like the WWII Normandy landings, the Whitehaven beach assault was messy, with sun-induced burnt flesh everywhere and bikini-clad ladies cavorting wildly, some clenched in combat with those of the opposite sex. The threatened media soccer match against a rival magazine was settled over a XXXX instead.

Before long the retreat signal was given and we jumped aboard Gipsy Moth IV to manually wrestle the big anchor up (a ‘windlass’ sitting on the starboard side, midships, turned out to be a winch for controlling the twin running sails. Of course!).

Bowling home and powered up she twisted and slid down waves like a typical IOR snake, while a race of contrasts took place with the 98-foot Skandia supermaxi. As they came alongside skipper Grant Wharington got all hands on deck to give us a salute and three cheers. Stirring stuff – and overhead the RAAF Roulettes aerobatic team buzzed past in tight formation with a faint tipping of their wings. Not a bad day at Hammo, overall.

In 1965 Chichester commissioned Gosport-based shipyard Camper and Nicholsons to build the boat, designed by John Illingworth and Angus Primrose. Launched in March 1966, Gipsy Moth IV was 53ft (16m) overall with long overhangs giving a modest waterline length of 38ft 6 in (11.73 m). The hull was built in cold-moulded Honduras mahogany.

The scheduled displacement (to meet Chichester’s maximum weight requirements) was 10.4 tons, but after trials a ton of ballast was added to cope with her insufficient righting moment. Ketch-rigged, she has a sail area of 79.3m2, extendible with a spinnaker to over 140m2 Illingworth designed her to have the maximum amount of sail for the minimum amount of rigging. He employed tillerbased self-steering using ideas from Blondie Hasler’s famous Folkboat that allowed steerage from the skipper’s bunk, essential for lengthy solo voyages.

1966 CIRCUMNAVIGATION

Gipsy Moth IV set out from Plymouth on 27 August, 1966 with 64-year-old Chichester at the helm. The voyage was eventful, and Chichester recalled one particular moment when it nearly ended. Part of the frame holding the wind vane self-steering failed, 2,300 miles from Sydney. Not wanting to put in at Fremantle, he spent three days balancing sails and experimenting with shock-cord lines on the tiller, eventually getting the boat to hold a course and cover 160 miles a day.

When an exhausted Chichester entered Sydney Harbour for a stopover 107 days later, he enlisted the help of America’s Cup designer Warwick Hood. He added a piece to the boat’s keel, extending its base to hang below the keel-hung rudder. This was intended to provide Gipsy Moth IV with better directional stability, but the modification wasn’t a success.

This gave the Englishman plenty to consider given that they were only halfway round the world and the toughest test was yet to come – Cape Horn. As he recalled afterwards: “The boat was too big for me. She is cantankerous and difficult and needs a crew of three – a man to navigate, an elephant to move the tiller and a 3’6” chimpanzee with arms 8’ long to get about below and work some of the gear,” he said. On the home leg near Cape Horn the yacht rolled in a 140° capsize, but fortunately self-righted.

In his book, The Circumnavigators, Don Holm describes Gipsy Moth IV as “perhaps one of the worst racing yachts ever built.” The boat was too big and too demanding for the 64-year-old skipper. At the end of the arduous circumnavigation, asked why he did it, Chichester replied: “Because it intensifies life.”

Among the records that Chichester achieved during that ninemonth voyage was beating the average time (230 days) taken by a fully-crewed Clipper ship: Chichester did it in 226 days.

On his return in May 1967, thousands lined the shores of Plymouth Hoe to welcome him. Chichester became an national hero, including to small boys like your writer who had nautical aspirations. He was invited to Buckingham Palace where the Queen knighted him, using the same sword that gave that honour to adventurer Sir Francis Drake; the first Englishman to complete a circumnavigation with his crew.

Chichester then unceremoniously dumped the yacht to have his final vessel built, Gipsy Moth V, stating that version IV had no sentimental value for him at all. The yacht lay rotting while Chichester again sailed transatlantic voyages in pursuit of records.

But by then his body was failing and he was airlifted from his last voyage, with son Chiles going aboard to bring the new a yacht home. Shortly afterwards he lost his long battle with cancer and died in 1972. He had two children with wife Sheila, and eldest son Chiles went on to sail solo in his illustrious father’s wake.

RESTORATION

A campaign launched in 2003 by journalist Paul Gelder led to the Gipsy Moth IV’s restoration. The affable editor of Yachting Monthly, Paul Gelder and I have been on some memorable assignments together which included being presented to Princess Anne in 2006 in Sydney. “But you’re not Australian!” she accusingly laughed at me. As patron of Scottish Rugby and various other northern tribes she knew me for what I was.

As for Gelder, I greatly valued his camaraderie and his wit. A newspaperman turned magazine writer, he’d done the media hard-yards before helming Yachting Monthly. Very sadly, Paul died in 2019 from cancer, aged 71, but he left a fantastic legacy in the shape of the restored Gipsy Moth IV.

Early in the campaign Gelder met the head of the UKSA, entrepreneur and sailor David Green, who got the organisation to take over the boat restoration. She was taken by road to her original builder Camper & Nicholson, in Gosport, with the company doing the £300,000 project at cost price. A lot of the money came from the general public.

The B&G navigation equipment was replaced with new electronics but the original devices were retained on a covering panel to maintain the 1966 feel. Gelder recounted the restoration story in his book, Gipsy Moth IV: A Legend Sails Again.

The restored yacht was launched in June 2005 – the date coincided with the 40th anniversary of Chichester’s epic voyage and by September she departed for a 21-month educational round-the-world voyage. The first part was with the Blue Water Round the World Rally, via the trade wind route and the Panama Canal (not via the Capes).

WRECKED ON THE DANGEROUS ARCHIPELAGO

After Panama and heading across the Pacific in 2006 she ran aground on a low-lying atoll in the Tuamotus – not for nothing are they known as the ‘Dangerous Archipelago’. On board was a crew of youths from a charity organisation, led by 32-year-old skipper Antonia Nicholson and 24-year-old first mate Chris Bruce. The yacht had wandered off course in the worst place possible.

The yacht was swept up by a large wave and thrown across the reef at Rangiroa. After a Mayday and subsequent quick action by the UKSA charity, she was successfully salvaged by the Dutch company Smit.

Among the rescuers was the man who’d first come to the rescue of rotting yacht years earlier – Paul Gelder.

After fitting plywood patches on the hull and towing her across the reef to deep water, the yacht was saved. There followed a second extensive restoration in Auckland by the NZ America’s Cup Team – led by Grant Dalton – who donated premises and help in the Viaduct Harbour, allowing the yacht to be relaunched in June 2006.

That was just in time to reach Hamilton Island Race Week and meet with this writer, who was careful to avoid all reefs while at her helm. Soon after she departed west to complete her circumnavigation via the Suez Canal. After being accompanied into Plymouth by a flotilla, Gipsy Moth IV docked at West Hoe Pier on 28 May 2007, just as she’d done exactly 40 years earlier, to complete her second journey round the world.

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Owners UKSA eventually sold the yacht in 2010 for $250,000 after finding her unsuitable for training and the maintenance costs too high. After a campaign to keep the yacht in British waters, she was bought by entrepreneurs Eileen Skinner and business partner Rob Thompson who then handed her to a new charity, The Gipsy Moth Trust.

The yacht’s costs are funded by paying passengers and crew, and by donations to the Trust. She often returns to Chichester’s locale, Bucklers Hard on the snaking Beaulieu River, a legendary pier on the Solent that many sailors cherish, including this writer many decades ago doing his junior skipper’s ticket with a head full of Gipsy Moth dreams.

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• THE GREAT RACE – 1966
• THE KNIGHTHOOD
• FAMOUS QUOTES
• RESTORATION 2022-2024
• ROUND BRITAIN – 2024
• THE THIRD CIRCUMNAVIGATION
• SOLO DOCKER
• GIPSY MOTH SAILORS LISTING
• GIPSY MOTH VISITORS BOOK

THE SAILING LEGEND

• INNOVATIONS
• THE GUEST BOOK

n July 1968,  Gipsy Moth IV  was put on permanent display at  Greenwich  in a land-locked purpose-built dry dock next to  the  Cutty Sark . The yacht was open to the public for many years. In September 1977 a ceremony was held to mark her 1 millionth visitor on board.Eventually, due to general deterioration from allowing visitors to walk across her decks, Gipsy Moth was permanently closed to visitors, remaining on display at Greenwich next to the Cutty Sark. Her “entombment” at Greenwich was referred to in the song “ Single Handed Sailor ” by the band  Dire Straits .

After 37 years (in 2005) she was freed and relaunched.

© 2024 Gipsy Moth IV

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Gipsy Moth IV: A legend sails again Hardcover – December 17, 2007

Purchase options and add-ons.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Yachting Monthly ’s Paul Gelder tells the remarkable story of Gipsy Moth’s rise, fall and triumphant rise again. It is the definitive history of this sailing icon, illustrated throughout with never before published photographs of the boat, the restoration project and dramatic images from both of her epic voyages.

 The author has had unprecedented access to both the Chichester family archives and to the skippers’ and crews’ logs for the second circumnavigation, he even sailed aboard her on the first leg from Plymouth to Gibraltar.  Having championed the restoration of this iconic yacht from the start, Paul Gelder has finally written a worthy successor the Chichester’s original bestseller Gipsy Moth Circles The World.

• Print length 256 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Wiley
• Publication date December 17, 2007
• Dimensions 7.78 x 0.83 x 9.92 inches
• ISBN-10 0470724439
• ISBN-13 978-0470724439
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

"This beautifully illustrated book is the definitive history of Gipsy Moth IV..."  ( Devon Today , January 2008)

"If you are a photographer or a yachting enthusiast, this book is a must."  ( Amateur Photographer Magazine , Saturday 19th January 2008)

"The book is well illustrated and is a good piece of journalism-as you would expect from the author" ( Sailing Today , March 2008)

From the Inside Flap

• She'd be shipwrecked in the South Seas
• There was a fire aboard in the Tuamotus
• A piracy threat in the Red Sea
• A 50-knot storm in the Tasman Sea
• The sailors aboard would include kids recovering from cancer, drug addicts who'd kicked the habit, ex-prisoners, millionaires a Princess, a Dame and a Duke...
• Who was to know it would cost 1 million?

Gipsy Moth travelled 28,264 miles, during her 610-day circumnavigation with 10 skippers, 19 mates, 32 crew leaders and 96 crew. They visited 32 countries with more than 11 languages and needed inoculations from nine potentially fatal diseases.

This was a life-changing journey for scores of youngsters - some from disadvantaged backgrounds. And the m an they all looked up to was a 65-year-old legend reborn on the voyage - Sir Francis Chichester who did it all singlehanded in 1966-67.

The bunks were 'fiendishly cruel medieval torture machines'. Crew referred to them as 'caskets.' The boat was called many things: from "the vomet comet' to Lady Thatcher - 'the lady's not for turning!' A violent motion produced a rich crop of what one skipper called "gipsy Moth love bites' as you ricocheted from the one sharp edge to another.

It was the most exciting maritime heritage project of modern times and bought back to life a yacht that is a significant milestone in the history of world sailing. Gipsy Moth is one of the world's most famous small boats. She warmed the hearts of hard-bitten modern racing sailors, grizzled old seadogs and inspired landlubbers around the world.

From the Back Cover

About the author.

He has written two other books about round the world sailing events: The Loneliest Race, about the 1994-95 BOC Around Alone Challenge and InterSpray's Race Around the World, about the 1992-93 British Steel Challenge, in which he sailed on the first leg, from Southampton to Rio de Janeiro.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley (December 17, 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0470724439
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0470724439
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.78 x 0.83 x 9.92 inches
• #623 in Sailing (Books)

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• Fernhurst Books' Knowledge Centre

Why Gipsy Moth IV Had To Be Saved

Book Extract

Why save a boat rotting away in dry dock for 37 years that drove her skipper to despair and needs hundreds of thousands of pounds spending on restoration?’ many people have asked. 

Even Sir Francis Chichester, the partowner of Gipsy Moth IV, who sailed her solo round the world to a triumphant homecoming, said: ‘She has no sentimental value to me at all. Now that I have finished, I don’t know what will become of her. I only own the stern, while my cousin (Lord Dulverton) owns two thirds. For my part, I would sell any day. It would be better if about a third were sawn off. She is cantankerous and difficult and needs a crew of three – a man to navigate, an elephant to move the tiller and a 3ft 6in chimpanzee with arms 8ft long to get about below and work the gear!’

When Yachting Monthly launched the campaign to save Gipsy Moth in September 2003, one curmudgeonly correspondent wrote: ‘What Gipsy Moth IV needs is a gallon of paraffin and a box of matches!’ Another said: ‘Not worth preserving… she was built for a stunt with no intention of durability. Burn her. Spend the money on something worthwhile, like the Cutty Sark.’

A few weeks later, some vandals did try to set fire to Gipsy Moth, but were thwarted – unlike the Cutty Sark incident, which followed in the summer of 2007.

Even in Greenwich dry dock, Gipsy Moth IV inspired people. But beneath the surface, her timbers were rotting away, thanks to deck leaks and rainwater.

The fact is, Gipsy Moth is one of the world’s most famous small boats. She warmed the hearts of the most hard-bitten modern racing sailors and grizzled old seadogs and she was, and is, a vital part of Britain’s maritime heritage.

When Gipsy Moth’s keel was laid in 1964 she was to be the ‘best yacht money could buy’. No expense was spared and there were no statutory regulations governing design, construction or equipment.

She was the first custom-designed yacht for fast solo sailing around the world – hoping to achieve a passage target of 100 days from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia. She was the Open 60 of her day and Sir Francis was the pathfinder and pioneer. No one had designed a boat which could be close-winded, fast and light-displacement, yet strong enough to stand up to a knowndown in the Southern Ocean.

Designer John Illingworth later said they could have designed a heavier, beamier boat which would have sailed more upright, but she would have been much slower. 

True, others had sailed singlehanded round the world before Chichester, like Joshua Slocum (1895-98). But theirs were leisurely cruises, often taking years. Chichester’s was a defiant, harrowing race against the clock, in a bold attempt to beat the time of the Victorian clipper ships, including the Cutty Sark. Gipsy Moth IV was then the biggest boat conceived for solo sailing – a 53ft ketch for a man aged 64! 

In nautical terms, she was like a Battle of Britain Spitfire – inextricably a part of Britain’s finest hour at sea. Chichester’s record-breaking circumnavigation inspired many of today’s sailing stars – including Dame Ellen MacArthur, Sir Robin Knox Johnston and Sir Chay Blyth, all of whom followed in his illustrious wake as solo round the world record-breakers. As a schoolgirl Ellen MacArthur would take the best-selling book, Gipsy Moth Circles the World, out of the library and re-read it with the same sense of excitement that today’s teenagers have for the Harry Potter books … and the Southern Ocean could prove just as malevolent as Lord Voldemort.

In nautical terms, Gipsy Moth was like a Battle of Britain Spitfire – part of Britain’s finest hour at sea.

‘Wild horses could not drag me down to Cape Horn and that sinister Southern Ocean again in a small boat,’ wrote Chichester after his voyage. ‘There is something nightmarish about deep breaking seas and screaming winds… I had a feeling of helplessness before the power of the waves came rolling down on top of me.’

Between 27 August 1966, when Chichester sailed from Plymouth, and 28 May 1967, when he returned, via Cape Horn, after one stop in Sydney, Australia, he effectively re-wrote the Guinness book of ocean sailing records. But more than that, his solitary, heroic feat was said to have restored the illusion of British mastery of the Seven Seas. He was the new conqueror, like Scott of the Antarctic or Hillary of Everest – for his voyage was the sailor’s Everest.

A quarter of a million people lined Plymouth Hoe on a spring evening to welcome home the man who had sailed faster than anyone before him. On the way, he’d celebrated his 65th birthday with a champagne cocktail wearing his green velvet smoking jacket. ‘My only ‘slip-up is that I left my bowtie behind…’ he wrote in his logbook. 

This was the era of the Swinging Sixties, with hippies, drop-outs, flower power and free love and one commentator wrote that ‘Sir Francis stood as a living refutation to the seedy claims of sex, drugs and rock and roll.’

When the Queen knighted him at Greenwich, with the same sword that Elizabeth I used to knight Sir Francis Drake in 1580, thousands watched on TV in pubs and homes across the country. ‘People found something to celebrate in themselves,’ wrote Jonathan Raban in his introduction to Chichester’s classic book of his voyage, Gipsy Moth Circles the World. ‘Their new stooped, short-sighted knight reminded them of the salt in their veins, their brave historic past, their English mettle.’

Britain had a new sporting super hero to celebrate. You could say, perhaps, that Chichester was the David Beckham of his day – even if he was old enough to be Beckham’s grandfather!

In the 21st century, the reverberations of Chichester’s achievement still stand the test of time. Others half his age set off to break his record, often in greater comfort and with better equipment. But Chichester will always be the first. After his voyage, Gipsy Moth was exhibited at the London Boat Show in Earls Court in January 1968, and then offered by Lord Dulverton to the Greater London

Council, who undertook to put her on display to the public at the river-side Cutty Sark Gardens as a permanent memorial to the epic voyage and her bid to beat Cutty Sark’s 100- day record. A public appeal was launched so Sir Edward McAlpine’s firm, which built the dry dock for Cutty Sark, could now do the same for this doughty ketch. Thus Gipsy Moth was ‘embalmed’ in her concrete tomb. For many years she was open to the public and continued to inspire visitors.

Chichester knighted by the Queen at Greenwich with Sir Francis Drake’s sword in July 1967.

But in August 2001, on one of many visits to Greenwich, I stood alongside the landlocked ketch and saw her peeling paintwork encrusted with bird droppings. A lager lout’s beer can lay on the sidedeck and burger containers had been lobbed into the cockpit. It seemed nothing less than the desecration of a maritime monument. I felt a special affinity to the Moth, since she had been ‘born’ in my home town of Emsworth, Hampshire, where her designers, John Illingworth and Angus Primrose, had an office at 36 North Street.

Boats like Gipsy Moth belong in the ocean. Rainwater rots them. They are meant to be sailed, not entombed or exhibited in museums. A wooden boat is a living entity, imbued with the spirit of those who built and sailed them.

Seven years earlier, in 1995, I had seen Gipsy Moth restored to a pristine state. The Maritime Trust, her owners since 1973, had arranged for her to be taken by road to the Maritime Workshop in Gosport, where shipwrights lovingly restored her. Two decades in dry dock with London’s polluted air and acid rain lying in puddles on the deck and in the bilges, plus thousands of tourists tramping feet stepping aboard, had left their mark on her.

I went to Gosport to report for Yachting Monthly on the  30,000 refit being funded by the Trust and Nauticalia, a company which sells maritime artefacts, including models of Gipsy Moth IV.

Gipsy Moth leaves Greenwich, after almost 20 years, for her first re-fit in 1995.

A new plywood deck had been made and the cold-moulded Honduras mahogany hull, coachroof and cockpit were being refurbished and repainted. I discovered letters had arrived from nautical souvenir hunters as far away as America, asking for pieces of her old deck. I was given a piece myself by Bill Puddle, Managing Director of the workshop, which I kept on my desk in pride of place. Appropriately, Bill had begun his apprenticeship as a boat-builder aged 15 at Camper & Nicholsons, less then two miles away, where Gipsy Moth was built. Many of Camper’s shipwrights who had helped to build her stopped by to re-examine their craftsmanship. The new deck was covered with a layer of hi-tech epoxy saturated matting to keep the London rain from rotting her when she returned to Greenwich in the spring.

Now, six years later in 2001, she was back in a sorry state once again, with rot in her coamings and the aft part of the cockpit. It would be a tragedy and a scandal if this relic of Britain’s maritime heritage rotted away.

In September 2001, we had reported on a proposal to get Gipsy Moth IV sailing again as a ‘flagship’ for the International Sailing Craft Association (ISCA), making passages to its collection of historic craft at various sites around Britain.

But months on nothing had happened. The London Borough of Greenwich was demanding that the yacht couldn’t be moved until a guarantee was given that the dry dock basin was filled in – at a cost of some  60,000! The Maritime Trust and ISCA simply didn’t have the money. It was an impasse – and Gipsy Moth was the innocent victim.

Captain Simon Waite, Superintendent of Ships for the Maritime Trust and Master of the Cutty Sark, said Gipsy Moth was deteriorating because his workforce was so small. ‘Apart from washing down her decks and airing her out occasionally, little is being done to look after her,’ he admitted. There wasn’t even any money for a part-time ‘curator’ so paying visitors could tour the ketch. It had been years since a member of the public had been below Gipsy Moth’s cracked decks. It had cost the Trust 10,000 a year to open the yacht to the public with only 5,000 gained in revenue.

Taken from Gipsy Moth IV: The Legend Sails Again by Paul Gelder.

© Not to be reproduced without written permission from Fernhurst Books Limited.

Books related to Why Gipsy Moth IV Had To Be Saved

Gipsy Moth IV

Gelder, Paul

Format: Hardback

Gipsy Moth IV: The World’s Most Famous Yacht is Up for Sale

In 1967, Sir Francis Chichester became the first person to sail around the world solo from west to east. He had previously been the first to fly solo across the Tasman Sea, pioneered fighter pilot navigation during the Second World War, and won the first solo transatlantic sailing race in Gipsy Moth III while recovering from cancer. But it was his journey in Gipsy Moth IV that became international news and has inspired sailors for decades. Now the most famous yacht in the world is up for sale . For a mere $229,500, a piece of nautical history can be yours.

Photo: Sandeman Yacht Company

For years after Chichester’s iconic voyage, the Gipsy Moth sat on display in Greenwich. But yachting magazine editor Paul Gelder believed that such a craft should continue to sail the oceans, and in 2004, it was purchased for £1 and a gin-and-tonic (Chichester’s favorite drink) from the trust that administered it. It was rebuilt and actually did a second circumnavigation.

In 2010, another trust took it over with a promise to keep it in sailing condition. But COVID hit that small charity hard, and the trustees decided to sell the fabled yacht and to donate the proceeds from the sale to other sailing-related charities.

Francis Chichester set out from Portsmouth in August 1966. When he arrived back home 226 days later, over 300 boats, horns and sirens blaring, along with a quarter of a million people gathered to cheer him. It was a historic event that was televised globally. Shortly afterwards, he was knighted.

Chichester and Gipsy Moth IV broke the fastest voyage around the world by a small vessel, the longest passage by a small vessel (25,000km), and the third true circumnavigation by a small vessel via Cape Horn.

Photo: Chichester Archive/PPL

Gipsy Moth IV was designed by John Illingworth and Angus Primrose, and built by Camper & Nicholsons in 1966 specifically for the circumnavigation. The 16m, 16-tonne boat had her masts overhauled and new chainplates fitted in 2020. She has a cold-moulded, six-layer Honduras mahogany hull, a fibreglass outer skin, steamed timbers, a laminated one-piece hardwood backbone, laminated hardwood floors and a fibreglass plywood deck.

Photo: Gipsy Moth Trust

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Gipsy Moth IV is up for sale

• Katy Stickland
• February 4, 2021

New owners are being sought for Gipsy Moth IV, the legendary yacht which took Sir Francis Chichester around the world

Gipsy Moth IV was restored following a campaign in 2003 and went on to circumnavigate the world again in 2005. Credit: Theo Stocker

Gipsy Moth IV , the legendary ketch which took Sir Francis Chichester around the world in 1966-67, is to be put up for sale following the closure of the Gipsy Moth Trust.

The charity said a lack of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a costly maintenance programme, which was carried out over winter 2019, had resulted in a significant trading loss.

Although the sum has been covered by the charity’s reserves, the trustees have decided that with ‘no certain income in 2021 it would be irresponsible to continue trading.’

Designed for solo sailing, it was not practical to make the wooden 53ft Gipsy Moth IV COVID-19 secure. Credit: Theo Stocker

Eileen Skinner, who co-founded the Gipsy Moth Trust alongside Rob Thompson, said attempts had been made to find additional donors ‘but realistically there are a great many very deserving charities desperate for donations to cover their loss of income caused by this virus.’

‘The existing donors feel after a great many years subsidising this wonderful vessel that it is time to allow others to take her on the next leg of her journey,’ she said.

Customers who booked sailing trips for 2020 on board the 53-foot wooden yacht have all been reimbursed.  Regular monthly supporters of the trust will also be refunded for payments made in 2021.

Over the 10 years the Trust has been looking after Gipsy Moth IV , it has achieved what it set out to do, in maintaining the boat in good sailing condition and giving over 1,700 people the opportunity to sail on her. Tens of thousands have stepped on board to view her during port visits and shows in the UK and abroad.

Gipsy Moth has also competed in many Round the Island races, ASTO Small ships races with young people, and Cowes Classic week regattas as well as the 2019 Fastnet Race and a number of festivals including the four yearly Brest and Douarnenez festival, Weymouth Waterfest and the Plymouth maritime festival.

At boat shows she became a regular exhibit at both Southampton and Jersey and was privileged to mark the start line of the Golden Globe Race 2018 and the OSTAR . In recent years she has also been recognised as an RYA sailing school and thereby inspiring the next generation of sailors and adventurers.

Gipsy Moth IV has also seen many famous faces on board sailing her including the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, Dame Ellen Macarthur, Mike Golding , Ben Fogle and David Dimbleby.

‘Our current plan is to try to sell Gipsy Moth IV , and once all costs are settled to distribute the remaining funds between various other charities in the same sector, so that there will be ongoing benefits from our link with Gipsy Moth,’ added Eileen Skinner.

Gipsy Moth IV is lifted out of the water at Greenwich ahead of a £500,000 restoration spearheaded by Yachting Monthly and UKSA. Credit: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images

Following Sir Francis’ record breaking voyage in 1967, Gipsy Moth IV was lifted out and berthed alongside Cutty Sark in Greenwich, where she was left to slowly rot away.

In 2003, a campaign, initiated by the then Yachting Monthly editor, Paul Gelder , was launched to restore her.

Continues below…

Gipsy Moth breaks free!

YM has succeeded in rescuing Gipsy Moth IV from her concrete tomb

Gipsy Moth IV

Gipsy Moth IV: a retrospectic view

Gipsy Moth returns to Greenwich

HRH Princess Anne, Ellen MacArthur and Shirley Robertson celebrate GMIV's restoration

Gipsy Moth up for sale

Chichester's boat is yours for £250,000

The boat was bought for ‘£1 and a gin and tonic’ by the UKSA which then oversaw the £500,000 restoration carried out by her original builders, Camper & Nicholsons.

Gipsy Moth IV went on to complete a second circumnavigation in 2005.

The yacht was bought in 2010 by Elaine Skinner and Rob Thompson , who wanted to keep the boat in the UK ‘as a fundamental part of our sailing history, to make her available for people of all ages to see and sail and to inspire a new generation of young people.’

The Gipsy Moth Trust was launched in July 2011.

She is being listed for sale with classic yacht brokers Sandeman Yacht Company .

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