en route from sardinia to mallorca

Gipsy Moth IV calls at Maó on her second circumnavigation

Mao port. The crew and ketch during their brief stop-over yesterday

The ketch is due to reach Plymouth on 28th May, the fortieth anniversary of her return to the port in 1967 after her original voyage with Francis Chichester

C.M.W..Maó

On one of the final stages of her second round-the-world voyage the Gipsy Moth IV made a brief stop in Maó this week. Arriving on Sunday night the ketch and her crew remained in port until Monday evening before setting sail for Mallorca. From there she will sail for Gibraltar, where she is scheduled to arrive on 11th May, before leaving on the final leg which will hopefully see her arrive in Plymouth on 28th May, 40 years to the day after she sailed in to the port, with Francis Chichester at the helm, after completing her first circumnavigation of the world.

Setting out from Plymouth on 25th September 2005, Gipsy Moth IV´s second voyage around the world has taken her to the Canaries, the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia, up to Thailand and Djibouti, through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean Sea.

Each leg of the voyage has seen the crew change. On the current leg from Porto Cervo in Sardinia to Palma, Mallorca, the boat has been under the command of skipper Mike Acton, assisted by first mate Leanna Hill, three Canadian crew members (17 year olds Jim Stinson and Cheryl Osso and their teacher Wayne Suttner) and Scot Bruce from the Isle of Wight. Acton and Hill will take the ketch on to Gibraltar with another young crew who will fly out to Mallorca to join the Gipsy Moth IV.

Although a Canadian connection means that many crew members come from that country, the majority are selected from schools and institutions in the U.K. (including those for disadvantaged youngsters), tested for aptitude and given the necessary training. Though they are sponsored, crew members have to find some of the trip´s cost themselves.

Rescued and restored

Gipsy Moth IV is a 53 ft. ketch, designed by John Illingworth and Angus Primrose and built at Camper and Nicholsons in Gosport. She was launched in March 1966 and takes her name from the de Havilland Gypsy Moth aircraft which the young Francis Chichester flew as a pioneering aviator.

Following her victorious return to Plymouth in 1967, the ketch was put on public view in a dry dock in Greenwich, next to the Cutty Sark. Over the years her condition gradually deteriorated until a campaign to save her was launched in 2003 by Paul Gelder, editor of "Yachting Monthly". In 2004 the yacht was purchased from her owners, the Maritime Trust, by the United Kingdom Sailing Academy (a charitable organisation whose mission is the improvement of lives through watersport activities) for the sum of one pound sterling and a glass of Sir Francis´ favourite drink, a gin and tonic! She returned to the Camper & Nicholson yard where she was restored at cost price, which still amounted to over 300,000 pounds, ready for her current adventure.