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British Steel (yacht)
''British Steel'' is a 59 ft (18 m) ketch famous for a circumnavigation of the globe "the wrong way" (i.e. from east to west, against prevailing winds and currents) by Chay Blyth in 1970/71. The entire race was completed in 292 days. Described by ''The Times'' as "The most outstanding passage ever made by one man alone", under the headline "Boat of Steel - Man of Iron", the feat inspired two generations of ocean voyagers and adventurers, forming the basis of the 1992 British Steel Challenge and the subsequent BT Global Challenges. ''British Steel'' is currently moored in Dartmouth, Devon and undergoing restoration. History ''British Steel'' was designed by Devon-based naval architect Robert Clark, and built in 1970 by Phillip and Son, at Noss, on the River Dart. Launched on 19 August of that year, after a record build time of four months, ''British Steel'' was described by Don Holme in his book ''The Circumnavigators'' as representing the absolute pinnacle of modern yacht ...
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Ketch
A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch from a yawl, which has its mizzen mast stepped aft of its rudder post. In the 19th and 20th centuries, ketch rigs were often employed on larger yachts and working watercraft, but ketches are also used as smaller working watercraft as short as 15 feet, or as small cruising boats, such as Bill Hanna's Tahiti ketches or L. Francis Herreshoff's Rozinante and H-28. The name ketch is derived from ''catch''. The ketch's main mast is usually stepped further forward than the position found on a sloop. The sail plan of a ketch is similar to that of a yawl, on which the mizzen mast is smaller and set further back. There are versions of the ketch rig that only has a mainsail and a mizzen, in which case they are referred to as ''cat ketch''. More comm ...
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Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan's circumnavigation, Magellan–Elcano expedition, which sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, Indian oceans. Since the rise of commercial aviation in the late 20th century, circumnavigating Earth is straightforward, usually taking days instead of years. Today, the challenge of circumnavigating Earth has shifted towards human and technological endurance, speed, and List of circumnavigations#Miscellaneous, less conventional methods. Etymology The word ''circumnavigation'' is a noun formed from the verb ''circumnavigate'', from the past participle of the Latin verb '':wikt:circumnav ...
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Chay Blyth
Sir Charles Blyth (born 14 May 1940), known as Chay Blyth, is a Scottish yachtsman and rower. He was the first person to sail single-handed non-stop westwards around the world (1971), on a 59-foot boat called '' British Steel''. Early life Blyth was born in Hawick, Roxburghshire. He joined the British Army Parachute Regiment when he was 18 and was promoted to Sergeant at the age of 21. Rowing and sailing career Later he founded the Challenge Business to organise the 1992/1993 British Steel Challenge in 1989. This event allowed novices to sail around the world in a professionally organised race. In September 2007, Challenge Business went into administration after Sir Chay was unable to find a sponsor for the 2008-09 Global Challenge Race. The British Steel Challenge was followed by two successive BT Global Challenge races in 1996/97 and 2000/01. However, a downturn in the sponsorship market meant that the 2004/2005 Global Challenge race set off without a title sponsor. B ...
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The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ...
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Global Challenge
The Global Challenge (not to be confused with Global Challenge Award) was a round the world yacht race run by Challenge Business, the company started by Sir Chay Blyth in 1989. It was held every four years, and took a fleet of one-design steel yachts, crewed by ordinary men and women who have paid to take part, round Cape Horn and through the Southern Ocean where winds can reach . The fee for the last race proposed (in 2008) was £28,750. It was unique in that the race took the westabout route around the world against prevailing winds and currents – often referred to as the ‘wrong way’ route. The route of the race covered a distance of some . It changed to accommodate different ports of call, but in 2004/5 started from Portsmouth (UK) and stopped at Buenos Aires (ARG), Wellington (NZ), Sydney (AUS), Cape Town (SA), Boston (USA) and La Rochelle (FRA) before returning again to Portsmouth. The event claimed the motto “The World’s Toughest Yacht Race” and was the ultima ...
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Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the western bank of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and South Hams district, and had a population of 5,512 in 2001, reducing to 5,064 at the 2011 census. There are two electoral wards in the ''Dartmouth'' area (Townstal & Kingswear). Their combined population at the above census was 6,822. History In 1086, the Domesday Book listed ''Dunestal'' as the only settlement in the area which now makes up the parish of Dartmouth. It was held by Walter of Douai. It paid tax on half a hide, and had two plough teams, two slaves, five villagers and four smallholders. There were six cattle, 40 sheep and 15 goats. At this time Townstal (as the name became) was apparently a purely agricultural settlement, centred around the church. Walter of Douai rebelled a ...
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Philip And Son
Philip and Son (also Philip & Son) was a shipbuilder in Kingswear, near Dartmouth, Devon, England. Operating from 1858 until the late 1990s, the company provided employment opportunities for nearly 141 years for many people of Dartmouth. It was Dartmouth's last industrial shipyard. A documentary film, ''Philip and Son, A Living Memory'', presents the story of the industrial shipyard from its beginning to its eventual closure. Early history William Kelly began modernizing Dartmouth's Sandquay yard in the 1800s. George Philip (d. November 1874, aged 61 years) left Aberdeen for Dartmouth in 1854, becoming Kelly's foreman shipwright, and managing three slipways at Sandquay. With Kelly's retirement in 1858, Philip took over the yard. Shortly afterwards, Philip's son Alexander (nickname, Alec; d. 1899) entered the business. In 1874, Alexander inherited the yard. In the 1880s and 1890s, Philip & Son collaborated with Simpson, Strickland and Company of Noss Shipyard on recreational cra ...
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Noss, Dartmouth
Greenway Camp (also called Noss) is an Iron Age hill fort in the parish of Kingswear close to Dartmouth in Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ..., England. The fort is situated on the south western slope of a promontory on the eastern side of a hill west of the village of Hillhead some 65-80 metres above sea level overlooking Noss Point in the Dart Estuary. References Hill forts in Devon {{UK-archaeology-stub ...
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River Dart
The River Dart is a river in Devon, England, that rises high on Dartmoor and flows for to the sea at Dartmouth. Name Most hydronyms in England derive from the Brythonic language (from which the river's subsequent names ultimately derive from an original Celtic etymology. As the lower stretches of the river are still covered in ancient oak woodlands, it is accepted that the first element derives from *Dar-, meaning oak (derow'', Welsh ''derw''). However the second element (evident in the hard consonantal termination of ''Dar-t'') is less certain, with postulated etymologies from ''Darwent'' / ''Derventio'' (Sacred place of Oak) or ''Darnant'' / ''Darant'' (Oak stream). The Ravenna Cosmography records a number of Latinised names for the area, ''Devionisso Statio'' and ''Deventiasteno'' may represent corrupted doublets of a ''Statio'' (Station) on a river named ''Derventio''. Although the name ''Derventio'' is otherwise unattested for the river, it is an established etymology ...
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Dartmouth Museum
Dartmouth Museum is a local museum in Dartmouth, Devon, which displays and chronicles the history of the port of Dartmouth. It moved to its current location in the 1950s and is housed in a merchant's house which, in 1671, entertained Charles II and where he held court during a storm which forced him to stay in the port. The museum is run by the Dartmouth Museum Association, a registered charity. The museum was refurbished during the winters of 2010 and 2011 and has a large collection of models of sailing ships, and of ships in bottles. The latter is referred to as the Dawe Collection. The museum building itself is part of the exhibition which includes local records and photographs, and a plaster ceiling believed to be unique showing the Tree of Jesse. The museum also houses the Henley Collection, a collection of artefacts and scientific material collected by William Henley (1860-1919), all of which were previously part of a separate museum on Dartmouth's Anzac Street. The entr ...
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British Steel Corporation
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *''Brit(ish)'', a 2018 memoir by Afua Hirsch *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) See also * Terminology of the British Isles * Alternative names for the British * English (other) * Britannic (other) * British Isles * Brit (other) * Briton (d ...
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Pound Sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and the word "pound" is also used to refer to the British currency generally, often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. Sterling is the world's oldest currency that is still in use and that has been in continuous use since its inception. It is currently the fourth most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro, and the Japanese yen. Together with those three currencies and Renminbi, it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights. As of mid-2021, sterling is also the fourth most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The Bank of England is the central bank for sterling, issuing its own banknotes, and ...
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