Suhaili, built of Indian teak in Bombay, is the Eric in which Robin Knox-Johnston won the first Golden Globe, of 1968 and 1969, and made the first solo non-stop circumnavigation: three hundred and twelve days, with a long warp streamed as a bight to hold her stern to the sea through three and a half months of the Southern Ocean. The Notice of Race lists the Eric 32 among its approved designs, and a replica of Suhaili built in steel, fibreglass or wood may be considered on special application.
Thuriya, a replica built for the 2018 race in wood-epoxy at Aquarius Shipyard in Goa, was launched on 7 Aug 2017. Running third in the race, she was rolled and dismasted in a storm deep in the southern Indian Ocean, lying beam-on under bare poles with no sea anchor or warps out, in a cross sea the race’s investigation put at twelve to fifteen metres. Her skipper, Abhilash Tomy, badly hurt in the back, was taken off by the French fisheries patrol vessel Osiris three and a half days later, and Thuriya was abandoned.
One boat and one start, Thuriya’s, which ended in the Indian Ocean while she was running third: what the race has measured of the design is thin.
Her one past start: dismasted, the southern Indian Ocean, about 1,900 nm west of Cape Leeuwin, day 82.
One started: ended early.
On 21 Sep 2018, lying under bare poles beam-on to a 12 to 15 m cross sea in wind estimated at 75 knots, Thuriya was knocked down repeatedly, rolled through 360° and dismasted, and Abhilash Tomy suffered a severe back injury and could not get up (the 12:09 UTC message, sent from 39°38′S 77°23′E: “ROLLED. DISMASTED. SEVERE BACK INJURY. CANNOT GET UP.”). The skipper was taken off by the French fisheries patrol vessel Osiris on 24 Sep and the yacht was left at sea; spinal surgery followed in India.
In 8 kt of wind and more, where she and the other designs have twenty legs or more each, she was ahead in every such wind and angle: most ahead reaching in 8–12 kt, +28%, and least ahead running in 12–16 kt, +12%.
| Wind | upwind 0–60° | close reach 60–90° | reaching 90–130° | broad reach 130–160° | running 160–180° | Legs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | 62 | |||||
| 119 | ||||||
| – | 128 | |||||
| – | 85 | |||||
| – | – | 57 | ||||
| – | – | – | 39 |
What the record and the figures support, point by point, and what they weigh against her.
In Suhaili Robin Knox-Johnston made the first solo non-stop circumnavigation, in 1968 and 1969. The race’s investigation into the 2018 dismastings records that once a long warp was streamed as a bight she lay stern to the waves, and that it worked for the next three and a half months of the Southern Ocean without her broaching.
Displacement to length 419, 4th of 17 of the designs that have raced; displacement 8,845 kg, 5th of 17; beam 3.35 m, 3rd of 17; and, in the designer’s words, “full 6-foot headroom throughout”, on a hull 9.78 m long, 17th of 17.
An Eric 32 built as a replica of Suhaili, in steel, fibreglass or wood and presented in a Southern Ocean seaworthy state, may be considered on special application, and a wait-listed entrant who has built one for the race may be considered for special inclusion even when every official place is filled (Notice of Race I.2.3 and J.1.2).
Two old Erics listed by British brokers, wooden hulls of 1974 and 1981, have both sold. Thuriya was begun in 2016 and launched on 7 Aug 2017, and a replica being built in a shed in Newcastle, New South Wales, had been six years under way by February 2023.
The laid deck of the 1974 Eric had dried and shrunk, with numerous leaks, and was likely to need replacing; Suhaili’s own planking began to shrink in the controlled atmosphere of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. A replica may be built in steel or fibreglass as well (Notice of Race J.1.2).
Thuriya was rolled and dismasted lying beam-on under bare poles with no sea anchor or warps out; Suhaili too had been knocked down with nothing streamed in 1968, and had no further serious knockdown once her warps were out.
The race’s investigation into the 2018 dismastings found that, except for Gregor McGuckin and the first two of Uku Randmaa’s knockdowns, the boats that were rolled and dismasted had no warps or drogue out, and that boats of different shapes, windage and rigs behave differently in extreme conditions.
- Atkin & Co.’s design page for Eric, kept by Mystic Seaport (the design, the figures, the gaff rig, the headroom)
- Classic Sailboats on Suhaili and on the replica Thuriya (the year drawn, the yard, the wood-epoxy)
- Shyam G Menon, “Meet the Thuriya”, Outrigger, 11 Aug 2017 (the teak, the build, the launch)
- Wikipedia on Suhaili (the teak, the museum) and on the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race (the three hundred and twelve days)
- The race’s skipper page for Abhilash Tomy, goldengloberace.com, and Yachting Monthly on the storm and the salvage
- Golden Globe Race 2018 dismastings investigation, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, 22 Apr 2019 (Suhaili’s warp and knockdown; Thuriya beam-on and abandoned; the conclusions)
- Wooden Ships and Brighton Boat Sales, two Erics listed, both sold (the deck, the market)
- Marine Business News, “Suhaili: fulfilling a dream”, February 2023 (the Australian replica)
- Notice of Race 2026: I.2.3 (special inclusion) and J.1.2 (the Eric 32 and the Suhaili replica)
- The figures: the designer's own sheet for the Eric (32 ft 1 in, 27 ft 6 in, 11 ft, 5 ft, 19,500 lb, 4,700 lb on the keel and 1,200 lb of trimming ballast, and 726 sq ft for the jib-headed rig, the rig Thuriya carried). Atkin drew her with 726 sq ft jib-headed and 588 sq ft as a gaff ketch; the race's page for Thuriya (Abhilash Tomy) prints 628 sq ft (58.34 m²) of sail, a draft of 5.50 ft (1.67 m) and 19,545 lb (8,865 kg); Wikipedia and Classic Sailboats print Suhaili herself at 28 ft on the waterline and 21,772 lb.
Why her races ended:
- Golden Globe Race, “DAY 82 UPDATE: Code Red Alert for Indian skipper Abhilash Tomy” (21 Sep 2018)
- Golden Globe Race, day 82 breaking news (21 Sep 2018; the 12:09 UTC message and its position, 39° 38.420 S 077° 22.565 E)
- Golden Globe Race, “DAY 85 – Rescue Update” (24 Sep 2018)
- Golden Globe Race, skipper page: Abhilash Tomy
- Robin Knox-Johnston, “Golden Globe Race 2018/19 Investigation into causes of dismastings” (April 2019), Thuriya entry: 40° S 75° E, the wind estimated at 75 kt from the north-north-west, backing to the south-south-west, cross sea 12–15 m, “lying under bare poles beam on to confused waves with no sea anchor or warps deployed, and eventually suffering a number of knockdowns, which led to it being dismasted”
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: Plans to salvage Thuriya” (27 Sep 2018)
- Press Information Bureau, India, “Golden Globe Race # GGR 2018 – Commander Abhilash Tomy, KC rescued safely by FV Osiris” (24 Sep 2018)
- Wikipedia, “2018 Golden Globe Race”
What the figures mean. Waterline: the longer, the faster a heavy hull can go. Hull speed: 1.34 × √waterline in feet, the old rule of thumb. Displacement to length: above 300 is heavy; every design here is but the OE 32. Sail area to displacement: under 16 is under-canvassed by modern lights. The middle line is the median of the designs that have the figure: seventeen, or fewer where a source does not give it. Lengths are printed to the centimetre and areas to a tenth of a square metre, whatever the source’s own precision, and the ratios are worked from the figures as printed here.
How she is measured. Every 4-hour leg with a model wind on which the boat was moving (0.2 kt and more): this race’s since the start, and each boat’s whole race in 2018 and 2022, to her finish or her retirement (what a boat sailed after she retired is not counted). A leg’s wind is the model wind at its two ends, averaged as vectors, so its speed is that of the mean wind (a few legs of 2018 and 2022 carry the wind at one end only). The past races have no ocean current, so all three are measured alike: speed over the ground, and the wind’s angle off the course made good. Like for like sets each leg against the other designs’ legs of the same race in the same 3 kt of wind and 15° of angle; the heat map and the polar set her median in each wind and angle, over all her legs there, against the other designs’ medians in the races she sailed, each race weighted by her legs in it. Every figure is a median, and each measures the boat as she was sailed: the sailor, her sails and the state of her hull are in it, a hull under barnacles too. More on the Method page.