CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE was a stock English-built Drascombe Lugger. 18’ long, 6’ wide, unballasted, and with a draft of 4’ with the centerboard down, 10” with it up. She weighed less than 900 pounds.
There were actually two identical CHIDIOCK’s. The first remained in Saudi Arabia after my arrest, and the second was shipped out to Egypt the following year so I could continue on.
In them I made what was at the time by far the longest open boat voyage of all time, and may still be. Another man claims to have sailed farther since, but there are those who say that his was not an open boat. I have not seen photographs that would enable me to form an opinion. As the above show, CHIDIOCK was completely undecked.
She was a truly great little boat, covering more than 20,000 miles and completing long passages almost as quickly as boats many times her size. The terrier, if not the terror, of the seas.
Three of the photographs above were taken by Charles Mason of SAIL magazine in Tahiti 1979. The ariel shot--actually taken from a bridge--by Suzanne in San Diego 1978.
I took the last photograph myself, while drifting for two weeks and 300 miles after CHIDIOCK hit something and capsized. For more details see “Adrift” in nonfiction. After reaching land in what is now Vanuatu, I was, with generous help from Honnor Marine, CHIDIOCK’s English builders, able to put the boat back together and sailed her for three more years and 15,000 more miles. Perhaps it is unnecessary to say that I had an underwater camera.
Additional photos of CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE are found at Evanston: leaving in CHIDIOCK.