Books in Brief: Moxie: The American Challenge

Moxie: The American Challenge, by Philip S. Weld, Foreword by William F. Buckley Jr. (Atlantic-Little, Brown, 245 pp., $16.95).

In 1980, at the age of 65, Philip S. Weld, a retired newspaper publisher reared on the New England coast, sailed his fifty-foot trimaran to a record-breaking victory in the three-thousand-mile OSTAR (the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race) from Plymouth, England, to Newport, R.I. Weld’s time was 17 days, 23 hours, and 12 minutes; he was the oldest man in the race and the first American to win. This was Weld’s third try at the OSTAR race. The first time he finished far behind the winners. In the second attempt he never got started: his trimaran, Gulf Streamer, was upended in mid-Atlantic by a rogue wave while he and a mate were taking the craft to England; the two spent five days on the overturned boat until a British freighter finally rescued them. (A Russian freighter salvaged Gulf Streamer, which has been rebuilt and now sails under a Russian ensign.) Harvard and the newspaper business taught Weld to write; a Boston background, service with Merrill’s Marauders in Burma in World War II, a large family of sisters and children, and a very intelligent wife have taught him modesty and understatement. The result is a book in which the character of the man comes through as he weaves his life story in and out of the day-to-day log of his triumphant crossing. Moxie: The American Challenge is a sailing book that is not for sailing enthusiasts alone. Meanwhile, there is another first for Weld. Prompted by a French film made of an earlier race, he engaged the New Film Company and its imaginative director, Chris Knight, to film the race (Weld was not the favorite to win). Cameras fitted with automatic timers were mounted on eight American boats; departures and arrivals were filmed by Knight himself. The result is a fascinating film which has been shown to numerous audiences in this country and France, and is now available in videocassettes for home showing (The New Film Company, 331 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.). The film catches moments of joy and triumph, tragedy and grief as the mariners make their crossings. Simultaneous availability of book and videocassettes gives Weld a first in the media race.

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Moxie: The American Challenge, by Philip S. Weld, Foreword by William F. Buckley Jr. (Atlantic-Little, Brown, 245 pp., $16.95).

In 1980, at the age of 65, Philip S. Weld, a retired newspaper publisher reared on the New England coast, sailed his fifty-foot trimaran to a record-breaking victory in the three-thousand-mile OSTAR (the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race) from Plymouth, England, to Newport, R.I. Weld’s time was 17 days, 23 hours, and 12 minutes; he was the oldest man in the race and the first American to win. This was Weld’s third try at the OSTAR race. The first time he finished far behind the winners. In the second attempt he never got started: his trimaran, Gulf Streamer, was upended in mid-Atlantic by a rogue wave while he and a mate were taking the craft to England; the two spent five days on the overturned boat until a British freighter finally rescued them. (A Russian freighter salvaged Gulf Streamer, which has been rebuilt and now sails under a Russian ensign.) Harvard and the newspaper business taught Weld to write; a Boston background, service with Merrill’s Marauders in Burma in World War II, a large family of sisters and children, and a very intelligent wife have taught him modesty and understatement. The result is a book in which the character of the man comes through as he weaves his life story in and out of the day-to-day log of his triumphant crossing. Moxie: The American Challenge is a sailing book that is not for sailing enthusiasts alone. Meanwhile, there is another first for Weld. Prompted by a French film made of an earlier race, he engaged the New Film Company and its imaginative director, Chris Knight, to film the race (Weld was not the favorite to win). Cameras fitted with automatic timers were mounted on eight American boats; departures and arrivals were filmed by Knight himself. The result is a fascinating film which has been shown to numerous audiences in this country and France, and is now available in videocassettes for home showing (The New Film Company, 331 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.). The film catches moments of joy and triumph, tragedy and grief as the mariners make their crossings. Simultaneous availability of book and videocassettes gives Weld a first in the media race.