She was originally intended to be a dhow! Robin Knox-Johnston and a couple of fellow Merchant Navy officers had admired the graceful craft of the Persian Gulf and thought it would be good to sail one home. Luckily Alan Villiers persuaded them that such a boat would have no resale value, and some good looking lines for a seaworthy looking double ender were decided upon. Eight tons of teak would be used and most of it is still original. The keel was laid in Bombay in the summer of 1963 but it was until December 1964 that she was launched and then nearly another year before she could be sailed for home. Even so Robin found that she leaked seriously and had to put into Muscat to add some floors forward where the builders had not put them in. After that they sailed south to round the Cape of Good Hope but had to get jobs in Durban before they could leave again. Suhaili, named after the south east wind of the Persian Gulf, arrived in England in March 1967.

Suhaili rounds St Anthony Head coming into Falmouth

Sir Robin climbs around the boat like someone a third of his age

Robin then went back to his sea career and put the yacht up for sale… Lucky for him (!) no-one was interested and a year later he found himself inspired by Sir Francis Chichester to enter the Golden Globe race. Although he had his doubts about how well the boat and he himself could handle the rigours of the southern ocean, it was Suhaili who came through the competition of much faster and technically more advanced boats and carried Robin into the history books to win the £5,000 prize with a CBE in 1969 and his own knighthood in 1995. (On hearing of the death of  Donald Crowhurst he gave the money to his widow.) It was only after he had returned that he discovered Suhaili’s designer was William Atkin whose late son John got in touch to tell him so. “I am glad to say the correspondence developed amicably,” said Robin who had acquired the lines through a firm in Poole. However Suhaili is not listed under the Atkin design catalogue… and she should be!

After his return home in 1969 Sir Robin said he has never had a desire to sell Suhaili even though he had a very rough passage in her with four knockdowns and losing the mast in 1989. A bit more recently she needed refastening and the old iron had to be removed for aluminium bronze fastenings. The work took years, with Suhaili being lent to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in 1997, in the belief that she would dry out sufficiently to make removing the 1500 or so fastenings easier. It didn’t help and RKJ took her out again in 2002. Like many wooden boats the process of restoration took a long time with Robin still sailing her when he could. Last year he was sailing at the Hamble Classics in the late summer and she was looking very fair… over the winter with more work done on her cabin she was made good enough to sail down to Falmouth to start the feeder race for the Golden Globe – to Les Sable D’Olonne. From there she sailed to France to start the race proper on July 1st.

And he is very used to handing sails himself

Suhaili crosses the finish line on Robin’s return to Falmouth, England. Photo Bill Rowntree/PPL

 

History repeats: Suhaili in June 2018 near the famous Falmouth sea mark of Black Rock where Bill Rowntree’s famous photo was taken. This time Bill is aboard Suhaili and can be seen standing next to the mizzen mast as they are filmed by ITN

Having Robin and Suhaili in Falmouth clearly made a huge difference to the 18 competitors who were about to set off in her wake of 50 years ago. But there were also many well-wishers and other sailors who have been inspired to put to sea by this trusty double ended ketch and her indefatigable skipper, who, a few months off his 80th birthday can still move around her deck and hop out on her shiny stainless boomkin with the alacrity of someone a third his age.

Sir Robin loves the fact the Golden Globe is happening with production boats and with sailors of largely average means (Suhaili originally cost him £3,250 or two years wages as a sea officer): “It’s great, it’s where it should be and it’s very important that this is happening.” And of his beloved old boat? “Well, she’s not fast, she does not go too well to windward compared with a modern boat but then she is a terrific sea boat; she’ll look after you.”

 

Suhaili in the Golden Globe 1968/69. One of nine boats to enter she left Falmouth UK 14 June 1968, returned Falmouth 22nd April 1969 after a 30,123 nM voyage lasting 312 days, at an average speed of 4.02 knots.

LOA 9.8m (32ft)

Tied up alongside at Falmouth as the star boat of this year’s Golden Globe event

LOS  13.41 m (44.0 ft)
LWL  8.53 m (28.0 ft)
Beam  3.37 m (11.1 ft)
Draught  1.67 m (5.5 ft)

Under the rules of the new Golden Globe race a replica of Suhaili is allowed made of (almost) any material. One such has been built: Thuriya sailed by Abhilash Tomy 39, of the Indian Navy. She is a composite strip built with a core of yellow cedar under layers of resin and glass mat. (More on them soon!)

Photos except where credited taken by Dan Houston between Plymouth and Falmouth, UK, sailing in company with Suhaili on June 10 2018.