Sunday, March 13, 2016

An Extraordinary Adventure - Drum

I was looking around for a sailing documentary when I found a very cool look back on the 1985-6 Whitbread Around the World Race.  One of the entrants was a 70' boat called Drum, owned by Simon le Bon of Duran Duran fame.  The boat was skippered by Skip Novak.  As a warm up to the lap around the planet, they entered the Fastnet Race.  Five hours into the race, tragedy struck when the entire keel fell of the boat and she went turtle, trapping most of the crew inside the boat.  Eventually, they were all rescued and the boat was quickly repaired for the Whitbread.   One of the crew members was a young Magnus Olsson.  He went on to Volvo Ocean racing fame and won the 97-8 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread).  He was everybody's favorite sailor and an amazing skipper with his "happy boat" philosophy.  Sadly, he passed away at 64 due to a stroke.  It's a great flick and I hope you enjoy it!




No comments: