OBITUARY Les Powles, 1925-2022

Les Powles, who died earlier this year, was one of those eccentric corinthian Brits who was content in his own company and never understood the public admiration or fuss he received for sailing solo around the world three times during the 1970s and 1980s, writes Barry Pickthall.

A land-based engineer from Liverpool, Powles began to crave the freedom of the seas during the early 1970s and spent his £7,000 life savings self-building his 34ft Bruce Roberts designed yacht Solitaire. Somewhat recklessly, he set out to cross the Atlantic in 1975 with only eight hours’ sailing experience. He was heading for the Caribbean on the first stage of an around the world cruise, but poor navigation led him to land in Brazil. “I didn’t have GPS in those days,” he lamented. “There is no excuse now for getting it so wrong.”

Les also recalled some of the scariest moments, including a week of storms: “There were times when I was aware the waves could kill me. I had no control; I just had to hope we wouldn’t roll over.”

Sailing always on a shoestring budget, he set out on his first non-stop circumnavigation without a radio transmitter and did not speak to another person for 329 days. Towards the end of his second, non-stop voyage in 1980-81, Les struggled with hunger and survived only on rainwater, a few spoons of rice and a third of a tin of mince per day. At the end, he was down to eating just rice mixed with curry powder, which he called “a horrible recipe”!

On his third, eight-year voyage, in the late 1980s, he was given up for dead, but surprised everyone when he returned to Lymington four months after setting sail from New Zealand. He had lost five stone and hardly had the strength to lift the sail. For this extraordinary feat, Powles won the British Yachtsman of the Year award.

Lymington Yacht Haven, on England’s south coast, gave him a free berth for life and until very recently he was still living aboard Solitaire.

Following the publication of his book, Solitaire Spirit, published by Bloomsbury, telling his life story and circumnavigations, he received letters from all over the world congratulating him for his unpretentious pioneering spirit and the inspiration he provided.