INTRODUCTION: A WORLD RECORD

David B. Clark holds the World Record as the “oldest person to circumnavigate the world solo” in a small sailboat. On December 7, 2001, David at age 77 arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to fulfill a dream that had begun ten years earlier.

From 1987 to 1991, David made a complete circumnavigation of the world, much of it solo, in a 31-foot sailboat. Then from 1993 to 1995, David made his first attempt to establish the world’s record, but the trip ended in disaster when his boat was dismasted in the Southern Indian Ocean and the voyage was aborted.

October 1998 to December 2001, SUCCESS!! Read details of the trip in the achived UPDATEs.

FOLLOWING IS AN ENDORSEMENT FROM THE JOSHUA SLOCUM SOCIETY, INT’L:

The Joshua Slocum Society International was founded in 1955 by Richard Gordon McCloskey of Annapolis, MD for the dual purpose of supporting the long distance solo sailors as well as retaining intact the legacy of Captain Joshua Slocum, the first American to solo circumnavigate the world from 1895-1898.

Captain David Clark in December of 1999, as he prepared to leave Florida for his solo circumnavigation that was to extend to December 7th of 2001, had the inner strength and support that Captain Joshua Slocum must have had setting out from Fairhaven, MA in 1895.

Through various communications which included telephone, faxes, short wave, e-mails and satellites, our Society maintained Captain Clark's progress to reach his goal as the oldest person to singlehand the circumference of the world.

Having achieved this in Dec. 2001, our Society set about recording this event with the infamous Guinness Publishing Ltd of the United Kingdom through their Guinness Book of Records.

The long and short of this resulted in a dead end street! Guinness made it very clear that they, the Publishing arm, were no longer keeping the records on solo circumnavigators, in particular, records of the youngest & oldest.

Our Society honored Captain Clark in Dec. of 2001 with our prestigious Golden Circle Award as the oldest person to perform this remarkable feat. No one during our 47-year history has made a greater contribution to the legacy of Captain Joshua Slocum than David, and in the truest sense paid tribute to those who sailed before him.

Captain Clark certainly deserves the highest form of recognition from those who came before him as well as those who follow in his wake.

Sincerely,
Ted Jones
Commodore, JSSI