Almost 40 Years Later, Still Racing Around the World

At 27, he was a merchant marine captain and a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy Reserves. He built Suhaili while stationed in Mumbai and sailed it home to England around the Cape of Good Hope with his brother and a friend. The voyage took 1 1/2 years. "We ran out of money in South Africa," he said, "and had to take jobs."

He jumped at the opportunity later when the Times of London announced it was sponsoring the Golden Globe. Old salts thought him mad. "Some old fellow on the dock at Falmouth saw me working on the boat and said, 'Are you the silly Johnny that's going to sail nonstop around the world?'

"I said I was. He said, 'Can't be done, and even if it could, you couldn't do it.' What a stupid thing to say!"

Nine boats started that race but seven dropped out, leaving only Knox-Johnston and Frenchman Bernard Moitessier to round Cape Horn and head north for the finish. Suhaili led by 20 days, but Moitessier probably would have won on corrected time, having started later, Knox-Johnston said.

But the Frenchman, in one of the most puzzling decisions ever made in competitive sport, opted not to turn left at Cape Horn. He liked it so well in the deep Southern latitudes, he simply carried on to round Australia all over again, abandoned the race and wound up in Tahiti.

The first Golden Globe later was chronicled in a book called "Voyage for Madmen."

"I object to the title," said Knox-Johnston, chuckling.

With one leg to go, victory in the Velux 5 Oceans has been all but sewn up by the Swiss defending champion, Bernard Stamm, who holds a two-week lead over second-place Koji Shiraishi of Japan. Stamm can lose only if he sinks or breaks down irreparably.

The only podium place still in active play is third. Spaniard Unai Basurko has a one-day, 17-hour lead over Knox-Johnston. The two are pals off the water, but the Englishman intends to upend his mate. "I have to catch him," he said. "There are two Unais: One, my friend, whom I love, and the other, my competitor, whom I hate."

The boats depart Norfolk next Sunday at 1 p.m. after four days of public festivities at the Waterside Mall, where all competitors are tied up. The boats will be on display from 10 a.m. Thursday till Sunday morning, when they depart for the starting line off Hampton Roads.

Knox-Johnston will be around, unmistakable in his snowy beard, very likely with a cigarette in one hand and, if it's after 5, a cocktail in the other. His secret to longevity and good health?

"They did a survey of 20 people in England who lived to be 100," he said, "and 16 of them credited it to a dram every evening. I'm not going to argue with 80 percent."

As for cigarettes, "The smoke tells you where the wind is."

(To follow race developments, check the Web site http://www.velux5oceans.com.)

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SHAD SEASON: Shad fishing was booming on the Potomac near Chain Bridge early last week, but slowed when the weather cooled. Expect the spring run to resume in earnest as the water warms again, say the folks at Fletcher's Boathouse (202-244-0461).