Gipsy Moth IV

Gipsy Moth IV

In the grounds of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type Ketch Shipyard Camper & Nicholsons , Gosport Launch 1966

Ship dimensions and crew length 16.00 m ( Lüa ) width 3.2 m Draft Max. 2.36 m displacement 11.4   crew 1 man and more

Rigging and rigging Sail area 79.3 m²

The Gipsy Moth IV , the yacht with which Sir Francis Chichester in 1966, a one-handed - circumnavigation took.

When the ship is a 53- foot - ketch . The yacht was designed in 1962 by John Illingworth and Angus Primrose and built from molded mahogany by Camper & Nicholsons in Gosport .

The circumnavigation started in Plymouth and led through the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney ; from there it went past Cape Horn back to Plymouth. With a duration of 274 days (net 226 days) it was the first single-handed circumnavigation of the world with only one port of call. At the same time, Chichester achieved its goal of being faster than the best clippers .

After Chichester's death, the boat was exhibited on the right bank of the Thames at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich , in the immediate vicinity of the Cutty Sark tea clipper . In 2004 the slowly decaying boat was bought by the United Kingdom Sailing Academy for the symbolic price of £ 1 and a gin and tonic and taken to a shipyard for restoration.

In September 2005 another circumnavigation of the world started, which should give changing crew members the opportunity to sail the historic boat. This ended in June 2007. The boat was bought by two private individuals, who in 2011 brought it to a newly established foundation called "Gypsy Moth Org". Since then, the boat has been available for cruises in Cowes .

Web links

Commons : Gipsy Moth IV  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage: Gipsy Moth

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Report from the Jersey Boat Show in 2016.
2. ↑ History page on the Gypsy Moth Foundation homepage . Accessed August 21, 2016