Whitbread Race
On the 27th of August, 1977, the second Whitbread Race took off at Portsmouth, featuring fifteen competing yachts. Most of the second Whitbread Race was dominated by a head to head race between King's Legend and Flyer, a yacht representing the Netherlands and navigated by Conny van Rietschoten. Contrary to the current Volvo Ocean Race, the Whitbread Race was sailed by pioneers. Navigation was done by sextant and radio direction finder, and taking great risks could be rewarding, for example by passing the south pole as closely as possible.
Flyer and King's Legend left the other competitors far behind. During the first stage, a thousand nautical miles before Cape Town, both ships were still within visual range of each other, but in the end Flyer managed to win the first stage by 2 hours and 4 minutes.[3] During the second stage, from Cape Horn to New Zealand, King's Legend managed to get ahead of the Flyer by 360 nautical miles, until a leak was discovered at the rudderpost. It took two days to get it under control. Novak described the event as "a stark reminder that these are desolate oceans populated only by albatross, whales and ice, with no shipping within thousands of miles.".[4]" The incident cost King's Legend a large portion of the lead.
During the third stage, between New Zealand and Brazil, the crew lost their SSB radio, completely cutting the ship off from the outside world.[5] Without access to weather reports, King's Legend ended up lagging behind the competition.
Throughout the Whitbread Race, King's Legend was plagued by financial trouble. Reportedly, Conny van Rietschoten, Ratcliff's primary opponent, gave the crew financial support in order to keep the ship in the race. He allegedly paid an outstanding hotel bill in South Africa, and donated roughly $30,000 to King's Legend further on in the race. Ratcliff is also said to have refused to finish in England due to a consumption tax debt he still owed the British tax administration. Lowered morale among the crew eventually had Ratcliff back down. King's Legend finished in Portsmouth with a travel time of 121 days and 11 hours, earning her second place.[1]
After the Whitbread Race
Nick Ratcliff's financial trouble after the race forced him to sell the ship. The buyer was a diamond trader from New York, who owned the ship for only a brief time and mainly used her for celebrations on the Hudson. In the first twenty years after the Whitbread Race, the ship changed ownership various times. King's Legend has been in Lebanese, Belgian and Norwegian hands, and has sailed all over the world, from Australia to South Africa and the Caribbean.
Since 1999, King's Legend belongs to a Dutch owner. She was bought from a Norwegian businessman, and was in a bad condition at the time. The ship was renovated in five months at a wharf in IJmuiden. She was outfitted with new sails and a new teak deck, among other changes. The ship's interior was sanded and lacquered, but is otherwise still in the original state. After this refit, King's Legend has been sailing around the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean and northern Europe. She is currently mainly a pleasure cruise ship, but she also competes in various competitions. King's Legend competed in the Antigua Sailing Week, Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta, Voiles de Saint-Tropez and both Swan Cups, and will be competing in the Fastnet Race and various other races in the future.
