The First and the Fastest: Comparing Robin Knox-Johnston and Ellen MacArthur's Historic Round-the-World Voyages

This is the story of two single-handed non-stop round-the-world voyages: Robin Knox-Johnston’s in 1968/9 and Ellen MacArthur’s in 2004/5. Although there were similarities (both voyages started and finished in Falmouth, for instance, and neither sailor was in a conventional race) the story is mainly one of contrasts, mostly as a consequence of 36 years of technological developments. These gave MacArthur the opportunity for a considerably faster voyage, but that came at a price in that her trimaran B&Q provided more challenges than Knox-Johnston’s monohull Suhaili. MacArthur is no longer “the fastest” – her time has since been beaten by two Frenchmen – but she is still the fastest British sailor solo circumnavigator, while Knox-Johnston will always be “the first”.