Fair winds to John Guzzwell, who set sail solo from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1955, aged 25, and completed an unprecedented circumnavigation aboard a 21ft wooden yawl he had built himself.

The Channel Islands-born adventurer and pioneering wooden boat builder passed away peacefully in late August at his home in the Pacific Northwest, near Seattle, Washington, USA, aged 94, with his beloved wife Dorothy by his side.

Sixty-nine years ago, when John completed his circumnavigation at 29, Trekka was the smallest boat to have sailed around the world.

John’s account of his voyage, Trekka Round the World, is credited for sparking the dreams of many big names to follow in his wake.

John Guzzwell aboard Trekka: Credit: Maritime Museum of BC

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, another legendary Briton who made history as the first man to sail solo and non-stop around the globe when he won the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1969, was among those to pay tribute.

Sir Robin told PBO: “I had the pleasure of meeting John twice. A large, quiet, self-effacing man whom it was easy to chat with for hours. His knowledge of boat building and design was worth any number of presentations.

“His early Trekka voyages showed what could be achieved in a well-designed and built small boat and inspired many of us including myself at 16 years of age. I am proud to have known and shared time with him.”

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

In an interview with Furled Sails Podcast (note: download to play), John Guzzwell said he was incentivized to attempt to be the first Brit to sail around the world after chatting to a snooty English sailor who was dismissive of his suggestion of voyaging in a Folkboat.

John said: “He teed me off about small boats and I thought to myself, one day I just might show you what a small boat can do.”

He added: “I wasn’t looking for any records, that was as much boat as I could build at the time. I’ve often thought though, for a young person that was a neat little boat to have, it was fun to sail, it didn’t cost a lot of money.”

John anchored at Moreton Island after surviving the unforecast cyclone. Credit. Photo courtesy John Guzzwell’s family

Trekka’s light-displacement hull was many years ahead of its time: Credit: Maritime Museum of BC

Graham Cox, the author of Last Days of the Slocum Era, told PBO: “It is sometimes said that the difference between adventure and an ordeal is attitude.

“John Guzzwell’s voyage around the world on Trekka is a good example of that. His book, Trekka Round the World, is perfectly-pitched and deftly constructed, sweeping the reader up in his youthful enthusiasm and joie de vivre.

“He made it all seem so easy, so normal, so much fun.

“His extraordinarily fast passage times, in an era before self-steering gears, stand testament to a sailor who was fully in the groove. His fastest passage noon to noon, with a bit of help from the current, was 192 miles.

“And he didn’t live on preprepared freeze-dried meals. He cooked proper dinners, and even baked cakes in his pressure cooker.

“En route from Durban to Cape Town, the easterly wind built up to gale force south of Mossel Bay, and Trekka broad-reached before it under storm jib, with John hand-steering all night.

“Exhausted by the time dawn broke, he climbed stiffly below, continuing to steer with one hand while making coffee and toast with the other. It was, he said, the sort of boat in which you could do that!

“After reading Trekka Round the World, small-boat voyaging became the lodestone of my existence.”

Formative years

Plotting Trekka’s postion as they trek across the ocean. Trekka has the perfect layout for a small yacht, with galley opposite the chart table aft, and two bunks forward. Credit: Photo courtesy John Guzzwell’s family

Born and raised on Britain’s Channel Islands, John grew up around boats, the son of a sea captain. Soon after the Second World War began, his family was interned in a Nazi prisoner of war camp.

During those years of captivity, his father taught him celestial navigation to help pass the time and keep his mind active, and young John dreamed of sailing free on a long, solo voyage.

Afterwards, he trained as a shipwright and emigrated to British Columbia, where, aged 22, he began building Trekka in his spare time to a Jack Laurent Giles design.

Having read the story of the 19ft (5.8m) Sopranino’s transatlantic voyage, John had written to the boat designer requesting something similar, but with more heft to withstand possible collision with floating logs, which are prevalent in Pacific Northwest waters, and a yawl rig, to balance the sails more easily, since he planned to sail solo.

Trekka’s light-displacement hull was many years ahead of its time. She was exquisitely built, with fine dovetail joints and a beautiful interior, with the varnished red-cedar planks offset by white-painted frames and stringers, and varnished spruce masts.

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John Guzzwell working on Trekka on the hard: Credit: Maritime Museum of BC

During these early days of circumnavigation, there were no GPS units, watermakers, roller-furlers or solar panels, and no accurate weather forecasting. It was a time when small yachts did not carry two-way radios or radars, and before windvanes and autopilots began proliferating cruising yachts.

John wrote in his book that with the wind forward of the beam, he could usually get Trekka to self-steer, sometimes with the tiller lashed and sail reduced. If the wind was astern, as it was for much of his voyage around the world, he set his twin jibs, with sheets led back to the tiller.

With fore-and-aft canvas set, he hand-steered all day, before reefing down at night to balance the boat. Then he went below, made dinner, and turned in to his bunk for the night, except for the very rare occasions when bad weather kept him on deck.

John returned home to British Columbia on 12 September 1959 after 33,000 miles, four years and two days, to a hero’s welcome.

He later became a pioneer in cold-molded construction. During his distinguished career as a custom boatbuilder, he worked on diverse projects ranging from the 65ft Farr-designed Lively to the 158ft topsail schooner Tole Mour.

Between projects, John cruised extensively with his family, and in 1994 did the Pan Pacific Yacht Race from L.A. to Osaka, returning via the Aleutians and mainland Alaska.

In both 1998 and 2002 (then in his early 70s) he raced to Hawaii in the Singlehanded TransPac aboard a cold-molded 30-footer called Endangered Species, a half-sized Open 60 that he designed and built himself.

Lasting legacy

Don McIntyre onboard his Class Globe 580 Trekka.
Credit: Aïda Valceanu/CG580

Don McIntyre onboard his Class Globe 580 Trekka in Antigua, after a 3,500 mile Alantic crossing. Credit: @jankaslphoto

Golden Globe Race founder Don McIntyre, was inspired by Trekka Round the World to create a new class of boat inspired by Trekka, and to stage an event that paid tribute to John’s grand adventure.

Thus, the McIntyre Mini Globe Race (MGR), starting in February 2025, will see a fleet of 19ft (5.8m) plywood/epoxy, Class Globe 580 yachts race around the world, along much the same course that Trekka sailed.

The first certified hull of this new class was named Trekka, and will carry the class registration number ‘1’ during the circumnavigation.

Don sailed his Class Globe 580, Trekka, into third place in the inaugural transatlantic race in 2021 (winning the senior’s division), fulfilling his dream of sailing in John’s footsteps. Earlier this year, John had accepted the honorary position of Race Patron.

Don said: “Inspiration is as important as Imagination. These two emotions create a breeding ground for dreams.

“Without them, the world would be a sorry place. Adventure is often where the loop starts and that journey into the unknown is the one thing that drives humanity forward.

“Every new development, idea, discovery or breakthrough technology that has propelled man forward for thousands of years, and on to Mars, is the direct result of someone with a vivid imagination, having a dream, by being inspired and deciding to have an adventure.

“Now set your mind back to 1955. A young man builds a little 21ft yacht in the back of a fish shop and decides to sail her solo around the world! John Guzzwell was inspired from the beginning by others, so he wrote a book about Trekka and his adventures.

“For the past 70 years his voyage has made people think ‘wow! How cool is that?’ and maybe without even knowing they are inspired. I read his book in 1973. I had my wow! moment that sparked my imagination.

“Just weeks ago it was humbling to connect with John in his twilight years. He was excited to know Trekka’s journey and 70th anniversary will live on through the Mini Globe Race and happy to be Patron of this grand adventure.

“Days later John passed. He will sail on and others will hear of his deeds that have spurned new adventures with new generations. Life is like that. Thanks John Guzzwell for giving so much.”

John Guzzwell aboard Trekka: Credit: Maritime Museum of BC

Later adventures

After returning to Victoria, John made one more cruise on Trekka, to the Hawaiian Islands and back, with his first wife, Maureen.

Later, after the birth of their twin sons, John and James, he built the 45ft Jack Laurent Giles cutter, Treasure, in England, before sailing out to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, where he remained for six years, before settling on Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest.

Some years later, single once more, he met Dorothy Saunders, and married for the second time.

Together with Dorothy’s son, Jono, and – on the first leg to Hawaii – John’s old friend Miles Smeeton, they sailed Treasure down to New Zealand and back.

Later, John and Jono raced Treasure from Los Angeles to Osaka, cruising home via the Aleutian Islands. John also built a cold-moulded, modified version of Trekka, named Dolly in honour of, and for, Dorothy, which was named Wooden Boat Magazine’s 1993 wooden boat of the year.

John’s self-built 30ft (9.1m) sloop, named Endangered Species, that he successfully campaigned in the 1998 and 2002 Singlehanded TransPac Races – the latter when he was 73 years old – was intended to be a small, simple, oceangoing yacht that reflected all that John had learned during the years sailing Trekka.

John Guzzwell’s triumphant return to Victoria, British Columbia on 12 September 1959 after 33,000 miles, four years and two days at sea

After John sold Trekka, she went on to circumnavigate a second time in the mid-1960s, with Clifford and Marian Cain, between 1964 and 1967, along much the same route. They lost the rudder off northern Australia, but otherwise Trekka proved her lasting seaworthiness.

After another voyage out to Hawaii, and several years among the islands, Trekka was acquired by the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, where she is now a permanent part of the collection.

Read more at https://minigloberace.com/the-race/john-guzzwell/