Originally Posted by
Jay Sata
Apart from Donald Crowhurst and the Teighmouth Electron I cannot find another long distance adventurer who has fooled the media to such a great extent.
In 1994 Lisa Clayton claimed to have sailed "Spirit of Birmingham" around the world, and that she was the first British woman to have done so non-stop and singlehanded.
Naomi James had made the same voyage in 1978, but had to stop for repairs and couldn't claim it as non-stop.
It was alleged that Clayton had received spare parts in Cape Town, and she certainly 'stopped' to make repairs, although because she denied receiving the parts she was able to claim that she was unassisted. This meant that, within the rules of the World Sailing Speed Council, she need not declare it as a stop.
That's just splitting hairs compared to the widespread belief that she didn't actually continue the voyage on around the world. We doubters think that she stayed around Africa doing, as Jay Sata puts it, 'a Crowhurst'.
As soon as she finished those of us that had followed the curiously sparse coverage of the trip started to hear and see inconsistencies in her accounts of it. Yachting World gave it the front cover and several pages entitled 'The Amazing Voyage of Lisa Clayton' - those familiar with Crowhurst may have read 'The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst', and the similarity of the titles was no coincidence - they didn't believe that she'd done it, and neither did anyone who knew much about sailing
It wasn't just the inconsistencies in her interviews and the TV documentary that made us sceptical, but she hadn't kept a log, hadn't communicated with anyone other than her shore manager and hadn't been seen by any other vessel.
If the interweb had been remotely like it is now, I doubt that she'd have lasted five minutes - or would she?