The Homecoming

On 27 August 1966 Francis Chichester sailed Gipsy Moth IV out of Plymouth travelling west to east on the clipper route, a traditional journey for fast sailing ships. He returned as the fastest circumnavigator, having travelled via the Great Capes of Africa's Cape of Good Hope, Australia's Cape Leeuwin and South America's Cape Horn. Plymouth Hoe was packed to witness Chichester's return on 28 May 1967 after nine months and one day and the event was broadcast live.

Chichester had received an equally rapturous reception in Australia where he had stopped off. Sir Francis, who was born in Barnstaple in 1901, had been a successful pilot before he turned his hand to sailing; Gipsy Moth is actually the name of a type of de Havilland biplane. In 1960 he won the first ever single handed transatlantic yacht race from Plymouth to the USA now known as the Transat and in 1964 in the OSTAR he was runner up to a French Naval Officer, Eric Tabarly. Sir Francis died in 1972 and is buried in St Peter's Church in the village of Shirwell near Barnstaple. Gipsy Moth IV has been preserved for generations of sailors to come. Sir Francis himself had no love for the specially designed vessel!