John Guzzwell

John Guzzwell (1930 - 23 August 2024) was a yachtsman who circumnavigated the world single-handed from 1955-1959 in a 20 ft 6in (6.25m) wooden yawl named Trekka that he built in a shed behind a fish and chip shop in Victoria, British Columbia. Trekka held the record for the smallest yacht to complete a circumnavigation until 1987 when Serge Testa broke the record in his boat, the Acrohc Australis. Guzzwell was also a renowned timber shipwright.

In 1959 he was awarded the Cruising Club of America's Blue Water Medal to recognize his achievement.

Early life and education John Guzzwel was born in 1930 in Southampton, England, but was brought up in Jersey, Channel Islands, the son of a sea captain. Early in the German Occupation of the Channel Islands he was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp where his father taught him celestial navigation.

After the war he trained as an apprentice joiner and shipwright before emigrating to British Columbia in 1953.

Yacht racing While aged 68, he raced Endangered Species in the 1998 singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Races from San Francisco to Hawaii, taking part again in 2002. in which a fleet of 19 ft (5.8m) plywood/epoxy, Class Globe 580 yachts will race around the world, along a similar route to Trekka'''s.

Writing In 1960 he wrote a book about his circumnavigation, Trekka Round the World (ISBN ), which he updated in 1999 to include an epilogue of anecdotes and photographs such as competing in the 1998 Single TransPac Race on his yacht Endangered Species.

In 1979 he wrote a technical book, Modern Wood Yacht Construction: Cold-molding, Joinery, Fitting Out'' (ISBN ).

Death He died on 23 August 2024, age 94 at his home in Poulsbo, Washington.