FALMOUTH has been confirmed as the start and finish point for the Golden Globe Yacht Race, with the National Maritime Museum Cornwall playing host to the event.

The museum is putting on a major exhibit in 2018 to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Sunday Times Golden Globe Race.

Competing yachts will be based in Pendennis Marina, and the race will be started using the historic gun emplacement on Pendennis Point overlooking Falmouth Harbour.

Sailors from America, Australia, Britain and France head the preliminary entry list for the solo round-the-world race.

The event commemorates the 50th anniversary of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s pioneering victory in the Sunday Times Golden Globe race back in 1968-9, which led to the British yachtsman becoming the first person to sail solo non-stop around the globe.

The 24 men and one woman – Britain’s Susie Bundegaard Goodall – have each paid an initial $3,000 entry fee, though some names remain confidential until sponsorship announcements are made later this year. Other entrants hail from Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Palestine, Russia and Switzerland.

Nine sailors started the original race, but four retired before leaving the Atlantic Ocean.

Robin Knox-Johnston was the only entrant to complete the race, becoming the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world. Knox-Johnston, who departed Falmouth on June 14, was awarded both prizes, and later donated the £5,000 to a fund supporting the family of Donald Crowhurst, who tragically committed suicide. Turn to Page 19 for more.