2006 Dir: Louise Osmond, Jerry Rothwell 93mins
Documentary
In a year when there have been two movies made about Donald Crowhurst and his ill-fated quest to win the Golden Globe Race in 1968, it’s salutory to be citing this 2006 documentary as one of our favourite sailing films. And that’s because it’s brilliantly put together, with in-depth interviews from Clare and Simon Crowhurst, Donald’s wife and son, who shed light on Donald’s character and the dilemma he found himself in, as he prepared, in increasing degrees of chaos, to get started from Teignmouth.
DEEP WATER, Donald Crowhurst, 2006.
This alarmingly frank portrayal of a weekend sailor who had decided that an untested – and even unfinished – plywood trimaran was going to win him the £5,000 purse (and put his failing business money-woes to rest) is juxtaposed with other key players at the time, not least Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who won with the slowest boat, and Bernard Moitessier, the French sailor-philosopher who abandoned the race to sail around the world again.
“There were some similarities between us and astronauts,” RKJ remarks in the film, “there was a lot of interest in what happened to people when they are suddenly shoved up clear of the earth and I suppose they looked on us the same way, you know – we’re in a small capsule, we’re setting off to go round the world…
“It’s extremely dangerous; anyone who goes to sea and says they don’t feel fear is a liar, of course you’re frightened.”
Moitessier is also recorded saying in his fabulous French drawl: “Round the world singlehanded, without stopping? It’s an enormous challenge. Anyone who does it just for the money or for prestige is going to break his neck.”
The film is full of great archive footage, of Crowhurst’s boat Teignmouth Electron, and shows the tension in both Donald and Clare Crowhurst’s faces as the deadline for leaving is reached, forcing him to leave with the boat still unready. He headed out into the Atlantic knowing that to sail into the Southern Ocean was tantamount to suicide.
But having signed his house over to his backer if he could not complete his voyage he was forced to go – or face shame and bankruptcy. That was something he had seen his father go through (he had died of a heart attack when Donald was 15) and so he decided to pretend that he was sailing around the world… reporting record speeds and creating a false log. Having thus created a trap for himself which became harder and harder to get out of, his logbook shows his mind deteriorating to the point where he presumably commits suicide. It’s a gut-wrenching watch and sympathetic to Crowhurst and his dilemma.
Watch the film:
2018’s The Mercy is reviewed HERE. Directed by James Marsh with a stellar cast and a-la-mode wardrobe department, not to mention a replica of Teignmouth Electron, we nevertheless didn’t think it really cut the muster. The lesser known Crowhurst film, (1hr43min) directed by Simon Rumley, released in 2017 makes a better job of the development of Crowhurst’s madness, with actor Justin Salinger taking the character into areas of mental deficiency that Colin Firth, with Mr Darcy forever on his shoulder just cannot. Sadly Studio Canal, who made The Mercy bought up Crowhurst and shelved it for their more expensive (but ultimately less believable) version. It’s defo worth a watch.
Preview: