The Great Circle choral performance at the National Maritime Museum, Falmouth. Image: Colin Higgs

A tribute to the triumph and tragedy of the Golden Globe Race took place at the National Maritime Museum in November, a fitting venue for a choral production about one of the most talked about yacht races of all time.

Of the nine sailors who took part in the 1968 Golden Globe Race only one returned to be the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe. That man was Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

The race proved to be challenging psychologically as well as physically, with nearly a year at sea.

Great Circle, by Cornish Bard Nick Hart, eloquently captured the intensity of the race. Sirens representing the call to action echoed around the main gallery of the National Maritime Museum and performances from the choir Canoryon Lowen, alongside special guests Katie Kirk and Rick Williams, had the audience enraptured, from the intrepid start point to the weariness, despair and loneliness that only the strongest mentally could endure. The emotions of the family left behind were also captured in the song-writing and haunting delivery from members of the choir and guest artists.

In the words of one of the songs from the event, which captures the siren calling for Sir Robin Knox-Johnston:

“It is a very British thing that I am called to do

There is no other outcome in the plan

I believe that I am called to be the man.”

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