1. Sir William Robert Patrick Knox-Johnston CBE RD* was born on 17 March 1939 and is a British sailor.
18 Facts About Robin Knox-Johnston
1. 2.
Robin Knox-Johnston was the eldest child of David R Knox-Johnston and Elizabeth Magill nee Cree, who were married in Tring, in 1937.
3.
Robin Knox-Johnston's design is based on the Norwegian sailing lifeboat designs of Colin Archer.
4.
Robin Knox-Johnston was the third sailor to start the race, and the only one to complete the voyage.
5.
Robin Knox-Johnston's wife left him when he proposed taking her and the child back to England in his new boat Suhaili, and they were divorced in 1967.
6.
On 14 June 1968, Robin Knox-Johnston left Falmouth in his 32-foot boat Suhaili, one of the smallest boats to enter the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race.
7.
Robin Knox-Johnston later persuaded African-American sailor Bill Pinkney to follow the southern route around the Capes, rather than using the Panama and Suez canals to circumnavigate the Earth, and to become the first Black man to do so.
8.
In 1970 and in 1974, Robin Knox-Johnston won the two-handed Round Britain Race.
9.
Williams and Robin Knox-Johnston jointly skippered the maxi yacht Heath's Condor in the 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race.
10.
From 1992 to 2001, Robin Knox-Johnston was president of the Sail Training Association.
11.
Robin Knox-Johnston was knighted in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to yachting.
12.
Robin Knox-Johnston has been a Liveryman of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners and a Younger Brother of Trinity House.
13.
In 1996, Robin Knox-Johnston established the first Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and has since worked with the Clipper Ventures company as chairman to progress the race to higher levels every year.
14.
Robin Knox-Johnston completed his second solo circumnavigation of the world in the yacht Saga Insurance on 4 May 2007, finishing in fourth place in the Velux 5 Oceans Race.
15.
In late 2008 and early 2009, Robin Knox-Johnston took part in a BBC programme called Top Dogs: Adventures in War, Sea and Ice.
16.
Robin Knox-Johnston is a past-president of the Little Ship Club.
17.
Robin Knox-Johnston is the current president of Liverpool Yacht Club.
18.
Robin Knox-Johnston was banned from driving for 18 months in November 2016 after being caught driving at more than twice the legal limit.