With current Vendeé Globe race in its 18ths day with Charlie dalin leading a string of pearls of IMOCAs dashing towards the Cape of Good Hope, you maybe look for some additional entertainment around this topic. Here are two documentaries which are a great supplement of the reality of the 10th edition of the toughest solo sailing race around the world: „Sailing Legend“, a film about the achievements of Sir Robin Knox Johnston. And „Relentless“, a piece about Alex Thomson. Two brits, two superstars of sailing, two absolute legends.
I´ve watched both. Well, to be clear at first: Don´t expect National Geographic-level of objectivity and clean journalism. Both films are indeed big advertisements for their respective businesses or sponsors. Which for me is absolutely cool, knowing that both of cpourse have a buisness to run and money to earn. That said, let´s dive into the remarkable life and journeys of Sir Robin Knox Johnston.
The „Madmen“ underway: Sir Robin Knox-Johnston´s legacy
I don´t think that I have to explain who he is and what he has achieved. His books shouldn´t be missed in any reasonably equipped home library, the lecture of his story is a must-read. What I found most extraordinary about watching the documentary was a remark by – funnily enough – Alex Thomson who appears a couple of time in that movie. He said that in order to understand the scope and immense impact of this first completed circumnavigation by a solo sailor, one must realize that back in 1969 the world equalized putting a man on the moon, which took place during the Golden Globe Race 68/69 with sailing around the world.
Alex implied that at that time, people just simply thought it was next to impossible for a single man in a small boat to sail non-stop around the globe – a thing, equally astonishing as the moon landing itself. I had to think about this remark for quite a long time. For us sailors nowadays, enjoying the safety and convenience of modern satellite navigation and other electronic equipment, with internet connectivity thanks to Starlink even in the remotest areas and real-time weather forecast it may seem simply incomprehensible. But at that time, the achievement of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston had the same impact as Neil Armstrong putting is foot on the lunar surface.
Inextricable fates: Alex Thomson´s stellar ascent
How funny the co-incidence to learn that it was no other than Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who saw something in then young Alex Thomson. One of the youngest skippers ever to being appointed to command one of the Clipper Racers. „Relentless“ is the story of this young man becoming one of the big modern sailing heroes of Great Britain. A well-paced Hollywood-style documentary that features the most exciting film material of those all-carbon racing yachts dashing through the seas, flying on their foils.
And in some way, Alex Thomson´s story is like a sequel to that of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Wonderfully intertwined although decades apart. A great contrast between Knox Johnston´s 32 feet wooden SUHAILI and the sleek, computr-designed carbon-baked HUGO BOSS-iterations of Thomson. 50 years, half a century, of sailboat racing legends, of circumnavigations and – in case of Thomson – of chasing the ultimate prize. Something Thomson in the end, tragically, never achieved. After fighting so hard, sacrificing so much, he never managed to win the Vendeé Globe. His legacy, in my eyes, is that he was able to market the sport of sailboat racing like no other. He truly became „the Boss“!
His PR-stunts, like the famous mast walk, created iconic imagery that will forever stay in our minds. He made sailing look sexy, many, almost as if his majesty´s spy James Bond 007 himself was steering the yacht. Maybe the film-Bond in „No time to die“ and even the Protagonist in Christopher Nolan´s „Tenet“ are directly inflenced by the style and tone Thomson set with his Boss suit, walking on the mast top or standing on the canting keel. Both, this is clear, are absolute giants in their eras, the documentaries are showing this with exciting, chilling scenes.
Who wants to be a solo sailor?
With every good always comes a bad. The duality of life. Both the Clipper Race, which made racing-style circumnavigation in a competative environment available to paying customers and surely also the sexy depiction of solo-sailing by Thomson´s PR department had its downsides. I mean, who hasn´t met them, those sofa-solo sailors? And who could resent anyone for daring to get this experience for himself?
I´ve met so many wannabe-circumnavigators, dreamers on suicide missions and simply crazy, sometimes alarmingly self-blinded idiots who set out in their amateur boats. Many of which turn around and go back. Many don´t even start. Most announcing their big plans with much pomp and circumstance only to arrive very quickly back in reality. Well, apparently, still today with our nice convenient electronic equipment, Starlink, Iridium, AI-controlled weather routing and high-energy expedition food it indeed remains a huge untertaking to sail around the globe alone.
As much as we all love to see those fantastic IMOCAS ploughing through the waves, literally flying at two digit boatspeeds with a 2 in front; as much as real-time livestreams by those Vendeé Globe skippers may suggest – I guess the sheer immensity of this undertaking is still very, very strictly and fast separating the wheat from the chaff. Sorting out the weak, the unprepared, the loud-mouths and the bullies. And right so!
Two documentaries worth watching
If you haven´t watched these already, now´s the best time to do it. Just browse these on YouTube and enjoy some very nice entertainment. With „Sailing Legend“ being the historically more important and also emotionally more griping of them two, „Relentless“ has a much higher pace and sexiness factor. In any case, both are just perfect for an afternoon´s watch, alongside you may swipe and check the Vendeé Globe app, following the current skippers on their relentless ride.
Lastly, I had to bear a slight shiver. When Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, asked about the tragic fate of his fellow contenter during the Golden Globe Race, the ill-fated Donald Crowhurst. I too, back in 2018 when I´ve had the pleasure to talk to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on the phone, asked him about Crowhurst. To me, he was very self-restrained and I had the feeling that he tried to talk about something else. It was when watchin the documentary that I learned that young Robin, hearing about the impending financial bankrupcy of the widow and family of deceased Donal, he donated without hesitation his prize money so that they could keep the house. It is very sobering to be reminded that sailing is so much, but not everything. And that the one man who endured loneliness for 312 days and sailed through the most remote regions of our world, remained to be a kind human with a big heart.
Pictures (c) Clipper Race / Robin Knox-Johnston and Alex Thomson Racing
You might as well like to read these related articles:
An encounter with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
The incredible journey of Donald Crowhurst
MAN OF WAR sails solo around the world