Sir Robin Knox Johnston

An update on previous posts involving sailors of a certain age.  Sir Robin Knox Johnston, 75, sailing Grey Power, placed third in the highly competitive Class 40 fleet in the Route Du Rhum race between St. Malo in Brittany to Guadeloupe.  In 1968, he was the first sailor to circumnavigate the world non-stop in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Sir Robin was also the the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy (together with Sir Peter Blake) and in 2006, became the oldest yachtsman to complete a round the world solo voyage in the VELUX 5 Oceans Race at the age of 67.  He is also the founder and chairman of the Clipper Round the World Race.

Stanley Paris

In December and January last year we posted about the attempted solo-circumnavigation by Dr. Stanley Paris, then 76, on the Kiwi Spirit.  After a rig failure, Paris was forced to abandon the attempt. Now Captain Paris, 77, is back at sea after restarting his voyage, south of Bermuda in the mid-Atlantic. As reported by Scuttlebutt Sailing News:

American Stanley Paris had several goals in mind when he began his solo non-stop around the world attempt on December 2, 2013 from St. Augustine, Florida…

– Set a reference for time from St Augustine, FL
– Set a reference for time from Bermuda
– Set a reference for age (was then 76 years)
– Set a reference for energy (green mode, using no hydrocarbons)

Jeanne Socrates

Sailing is not solely the provenance of males, of course. Last year we posted about Jeanne Socrates, who at 70 became the oldest sailor to circumnavigate solo non-stop.  It was the third circumnavigation for the grandmother from Ealing, West London, who only took up sailing at the age of 50.