A Voyage for Madmen

By: Peter Nichols

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death.

In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms in the Southern Ocean, and of those riveting moments when a split-second decision means the difference between life and death.

©2001 Peter Nichols (P)2017 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"A riveting account of the triumphant human spirit." ( Publishers Weekly)

One of the best, most disturbing, and insightful.

This book had moments that were very difficult to take and moments that gave new understanding of the human condition, highly recommended.

Amazing!

What people will do when faced alone by their own demons and ghosts! Still presents as a mystery!

Not Awesome

My main complaint is with the narration. Very monotone, very difficult to get into a story that is read poorly.
The story sounds amazing, but having a difficult time following the narration

great story

I just reread this book a second time while a recreation of the race is underway. it is September 2018 and the boats in the current Golden Globe race just suffered a knock down last night. To boats just fasted one person injured.

Worth Your time

This story is very well written and chronicles in detail the arduous journey these men
undertook. You can almost imagine being there with them. Very engaging!

A Great Read

Although it starts out slowly as it sets the stage for the story, it finishes strong as it describes the voyages of very different men and their very different boats as they sought to circumnavigate without stopping.

Well done account of a snippet of time in sailing

It is about sailing, how exciting can anyone make it? All kidding aside, as a newcomer to sailing I found this historical account of primarily a handful of sailing's history fascinating as I may just end up sailing most passages solo.

The book covers a very interesting period of sailing history when macho, philosophical and truly mad men were literally racing across oceans and the around world on all kinds sailboats and budgets to achieve the final big ticket accomplishments in sailing.

modern classic

This book gets right to the heart of the issues and examines the intricacies of the fight against the elements and ones self in sailing around the world alone

Solid informative.

An amazing true story about athe first single hand sailing race around the world. A look into the kind of man that would put themselves on the ocean for 240 days without touching land.

Ok story but long and boring

I would return this title if they would let me. I listened to this story with the VERY intriguing title, for 20+ chapters. The announcer is dry and much like your 7th-grade science teacher--boring.