Michael Richey (sailor)

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Michael "Mike" William Dugdale Mills Richey MBE (born July 6, 1917 in Eastbourne , East Sussex ; died December 22, 2009 in Brighton , East Sussex) was a British sailor and navigator and author and editor of specialist books and magazines for the Navigation . His first publication, an article about his experiences during a shipwreck, was awarded the Rhys Prize for Literature in 1942 .

Richey became known as a passionate sailor and a regular participant in the OSTAR race of the Royal Western Yacht Club of England , a four-year transatlantic sailing regatta for boats that are sailed by one person ( single-handed sailors ). Between 1968 and 1996, Richey competed in each of these races with his little yacht Jester . The return trip after his last completed competition participation in 1996 at the age of over 80 years was noted with an entry in the Guinness Book of Records ; Mike Richey was the oldest person to cross the Atlantic as a single-handed sailor.

Life

Michael Richey was born in 1917, the second son of George and Adelaide Richey, one year after his brother Paul (1916–1989). After graduating from Downside School in 1935 , a Catholic boarding school of the Benedictine Abbey of Downside Abbey , Richey originally wanted to be a monk. Richey also spent a short time in the Trappist monastery on Caldey Island , but did not pursue this plan further. Instead, he lived and worked for the following three years in the Catholic alternative artist community around the sculptor Eric Gill in Speen near the town of High Wycombe .

With the outbreak of World War II , Richey enlisted, contrary to his pacifist attitude, for military service in the Royal Navy ; Richey was first used on a Royal Naval Patrol Service minesweeper , the HMS Goodwill . Richey processed the existential experience of the danger to life when the ship went down after being hit by German torpedoes into a short story, Sunk by a Mine, a Survivor's Story . The publication of this story was not allowed by the war censors in Great Britain, but it was published in the magazine of the New York Times in 1941 and came back to Great Britain from there: in 1942 this article was awarded the first Rhys Prize for young authors - special However, this did not result in literary appreciation for Richey, and he himself had no further literary ambitions later either. It was not until the celebration of his 80th birthday in 1997 that Nicholas Scheetz published another literary work of Richey's private print under the title A taste of the Antarctic , travel notes that Richey had written in 1943 as a navigation assistant on the auxiliary cruiser Carnarvon Castle on a voyage in the South Atlantic .

With further assignments on various ships of the British and free French navy , Richey gained increasing experience as a navigator and finally completed a navigation training at the school of the British Navy. After the end of the war, he set up the newly created Royal Institute for Navigation (RIN) in London from 1946 , and was its managing director (initially with the title “Chief Secretary”, later “Director”) until the end of his professional life in 1983. In 1948 Richey founded the institute's journal, the Journal of Navigation , which he was editor of until 1985 and in which most of his own specialist articles appeared.

Michael Richey died of a heart attack at his Brighton home at the age of 92.

Richey as a sailor

Richey began racing after 1948, initially as a sought-after navigator on other people's boats. In 1964 he bought a small sailing yacht from Herbert "Blondie" Hasler , the co-founder of the OSTAR competition, a converted folk boat with junks sails ("junk rigged") called Jester (German: fool ), with which he from then on in an unusual way One-handed sailor was "successful". The previous owner Hasler and Jester had already taken part in the first two OSTAR races from Plymouth in southern England to the east coast of the USA in 1960 and 1964, with the intention of winning the race.

Richey continued these journeys, even if - because he did not participate in the increasing mechanization and professionalization of sailing - he never had a chance of winning the OSTAR regatta, on the contrary: if he did not fail on the way - in three of his eight Richey had to give up regatta participation prematurely - if he reached the finish of the race in Newport , Rhode Island , several weeks later than the winning boat, usually the last of the starting field. But Richey's Atlantic crossings made Jester something of a “national sailing symbol” in Great Britain.

The sailor was not deterred from taking part by two problematic accidents . In 1986, when the Jester was brought back to England to the OSTAR in 1984 , he was caught in a heavy storm, but was rescued along with the boat. And at the following OSTAR regatta in 1988, Jester was so badly damaged in a storm that Richey had to give it up for good. Richey commented on the loss as follows: "For me, it was an occasion of immeasurable sadness which I found great difficulty getting over" ('that was an event of immeasurable sadness for me, which I could only overcome with great difficulty').

Richey's friends then collected money in order to be able to commission a faithful replica, and with this new Jester Richey also took part in the following two races in 1992 and 1996, which he again completed as the last participant within the time limit. On arrival in England after returning home in 1997, on which Richey celebrated his 80th birthday, he was able to celebrate a success with Jester , he was able to receive a certificate about the entry in the Guinness Book of Records: Michael Richey is the oldest Man who crossed the Atlantic alone in a boat.

Mike Richey took part in the OSTAR regattas from 1968 to 1996 without interruption. With eight participations with his small yacht Jester , Richey is the sailor with the second most competitions to this day (as of 2016). Only one other sailor was able to surpass him in this regard: Peter Crowther took part in the regatta for the ninth time in 2013, making him the sole record holder.

Placements in the OSTAR regattas 1968–1996

Michael Richey's placements in his eight competitions with Jester :

  • 1968: 18th place - 18 out of 35 participants who started in Plymouth reached the port of destination in Newport
  • 1972: 39th place - 40 of 55 participants reached the finish (also 3 boats outside the time limit)
  • 1976: The race was abandoned after the start, instead a trip to Ireland - 73 of 125 participants reached the finish (also 5 boats outside the time limit)
  • 1980: no placement, arrival at the finish outside the time limit - 72 of 90 participants reached the finish (also 2 boats outside the time limit)
  • 1984: The race in Halifax was abandoned after damage to the sail - 64 of 91 participants reached the finish
  • 1988: retirement, loss of the Jester in bad weather - 73 out of 95 participants crossed the finish line
  • 1992: 54th place - 54 of 76 participants reached the goal
  • 1996: 42nd place - 42 of 53 participants reached the goal

Awards

  • 1942 - John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Sunk by a Mine. A Survivor's Story.
  • 1979 - Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of Navigation
  • 1986 - Seamanship Medal from the Royal Cruising Club
  • 1989 - Induction into the Single Handed Hall of Fame at the Museum of Yachting , Newport, Rhode Island
  • 1993 - Award of Merit from the Ocean Cruising Club
  • 2000 - Appointment as Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Navigation (ION)
  • 2003 - Necho Award from the International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN)

Publications (selection)

Richey has also regularly published literary articles on sailing experience with his yacht Jester in the Journal of Navigation ; The following article about the serious accident in 1986 is an example of this:

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ on the exact name and life dates of Michael Richeys, see Kai Easton: Travels with Mike: from HMS Goodwill to Yacht Jester , lecture at the conference Picture this: postcards and letters beyond text ( Memento from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), 24. at the University of Sussex until March 26, 2011 (unpublished); accessed October 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ Jimmy Burns: Tribute to Michael Richey , first published in: The Tablet, January 21, 2010; Life dates of Paul Richey s. Goodreads, entry on Paul Richey ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  3. ↑ The basis of this and the following biographical notes is the presentation on the website of the Georgetown University Librarie (without information on the author, probably by Nicholas Scheetz): The Michael Richey Papers, Biographical note ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  4. ↑ Scheetz was the librarian at the Georgetown University library in Washington, DC, responsible for archiving and maintaining the manuscript collections, cf. Kai Easton, Appendix to A Tribute to Michael Richey ( Memento November 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), jesterinfo.org, August 26, 2010; accessed October 28, 2018.
  5. ↑ Proof s. References to A taste of the Antarctic .
  6. ^ Royal Institute of Navigation: Our History ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  7. ^ Graham Cox: JRA Hall of Fame. Mike Richey ( 1917-2009 ) , Junkrig Association website ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ Death of solo sailing legend (without information on the author). In: Yachting Monthly 12/2009 ( online archive, December 24, 2009 ; accessed October 28, 2018).
  9. ^ Herb McCormick: Last but not the least . In: Cruising World 23/2, February 1997, p. 30 ( digitized version ; accessed October 28, 2018).
  10. ^ Graham Cox: JRA Hall of Fame. Blondie Hasler ( 1914-1987 ) , Junkrig Association website ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  11. ^ Herb McCormick: Last but not the least . In: Cruising World 23/2, February 1997, p. 30 ( digitized version ; accessed October 28, 2018).
  12. ↑ cf. literary description of the accident and the rescue in: Jester's ultimate Storm , Journal of Navigation 40/02, May 1987, pp. 149–157, doi : 10.1017 / S0373463300000394 (online: jesterinfo.org ( Memento from November 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed October 28, 2018).
  13. ↑ quoted from William Sisson: Sailing alone, but never lonely . soundingsonline.com January 12, 2010; accessed October 28, 2018.
  14. ↑ Death of solo sailing legend (without information on the author), Yachting Monthly , December 24, 2009; accessed October 28, 2018.
  15. ↑ List of participants (“Half Crown Club Members”) on the website of the organizer Royal Western Yacht Club of England ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  16. ^ Jill Southwood: The Veteran Corinthian Peter Crowther - Suomi Kudu , Royal Western Yacht Club of England website, June 28, 2013; accessed October 28, 2018.
  17. ^ Dates in this section follow the information provided by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England , the organizer of the OSTAR races; see list of all starters and results on the website of the Royal Western Yacht Club of England ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  18. ↑ These and the following awards, unless otherwise noted, correspond to the list by Graham Cox: JRA Hall of Fame. Mike Richey ( 1917-2009 ) , Junkrig Association website ; accessed October 28, 2018.
  19. ↑ 2000 Fellow. Presented to: Mr. Michael W. Richey (Honorary Fellow) , website of the ION; accessed October 28, 2018.
  20. ↑ Awards , IAIN website; accessed October 28, 2018.
  21. ↑ Sunk by a Mine (paid archive of the NY Times); accessed October 28, 2018.
  22. ↑ cf. the details of the catalog entry at the Ohio State University library ; accessed October 28, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Richey, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richey, Michael William Dugdale Mills (full name); Richey, Mike William Dugdale Mills (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British sailor and navigator and author and editor of specialist books and magazines on navigation
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Eastbourne , East Sussex
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 2009
Place of death Brighton , East Sussex