Description

Book Synopsis

Les Powles only had 8 hours of sailing experience when he decided to sail solo around the world. Many novices would be content to just dream of such an adventure, and maybe get as far as a solo Channel crossing a couple of years down the line. Not so Les Powles, one of the twentieth century''s most extraordinary and eccentric sailors.

Les was in his 50s when he built himself a yacht with little prior knowledge of boatbuilding. Remarkably he made it across the Atlantic, though his navigation skills didn''t match his boatbuilding abilities; his first landfall was Brazil. He''d been aiming for Barbados - 100 miles north, and in a different hemisphere!

Three complete solo circumnavigations followed, all of them full of incident. The last one saw him given up for dead when he hadn''t been heard from for four months. His boat had been damaged in a storm, he''d lost all communications and had virtually run out of food. When he sailed up the Lymington River (aged 70) in a skel

Trade Review
Remarkable * RNSA *
Required reading for any who have the inclination to cock a snook at convention. -- Barry Pickthall * Classic Boat *
I can't remember when I've enjoyed a book more. * Fly & Fish *

Solitaire Spirit

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    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Tue 16 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback by Les Powles

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      View other formats and editions of Solitaire Spirit by Les Powles

      Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
      Publication Date: 1/5/2012 12:01:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9781408154151, 978-1408154151
      ISBN10: 1408154153

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Les Powles only had 8 hours of sailing experience when he decided to sail solo around the world. Many novices would be content to just dream of such an adventure, and maybe get as far as a solo Channel crossing a couple of years down the line. Not so Les Powles, one of the twentieth century''s most extraordinary and eccentric sailors.

      Les was in his 50s when he built himself a yacht with little prior knowledge of boatbuilding. Remarkably he made it across the Atlantic, though his navigation skills didn''t match his boatbuilding abilities; his first landfall was Brazil. He''d been aiming for Barbados - 100 miles north, and in a different hemisphere!

      Three complete solo circumnavigations followed, all of them full of incident. The last one saw him given up for dead when he hadn''t been heard from for four months. His boat had been damaged in a storm, he''d lost all communications and had virtually run out of food. When he sailed up the Lymington River (aged 70) in a skel

      Trade Review
      Remarkable * RNSA *
      Required reading for any who have the inclination to cock a snook at convention. -- Barry Pickthall * Classic Boat *
      I can't remember when I've enjoyed a book more. * Fly & Fish *

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