Bill Hatfield
{{Short description|Australian engineer and sailor (born 1939)}}
{{Other people|William Hatfield}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
William Hatfield (born 14 January 1939) is an Australian retired engineer and fisherman who on 22 February 2020, at the age of 81, became the oldest person to have successfully sailed solo, non-stop and unassisted around the Earth.{{Cite news |date=22 February 2020 |title=This 81yo Queenslander is now the oldest person to sail solo and non-stop around the world |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-22/bill-hatfield-oldest-person-to-sail-solo-around-the-world/11991436 |access-date=18 July 2022}}{{Cite web |title=Aussie grandfather becomes oldest person to sail around the world |url=https://www.9news.com.au/national/australian-grandfather-becomes-oldest-person-to-sail-around-the-world-queensland-news/1e990657-5ea3-44b5-8e24-7693501203f7 |access-date=24 July 2022 |website=www.9news.com.au|date=22 February 2020 }}
Hatfield simultaneously set the speed record for a person sailing single-handedly westbound around the world in a vessel of under {{convert|40|ft}} in length.
Early life and career
Hatfield was born on 14 January 1939 and grew up in the Cairns area and later around Sydney. When he was 15 he moved to Paddington, New South Wales, and worked at a boat yard in Rushcutters Bay. He studied civil engineering and after graduating worked on construction projects around Sydney, as well as in Papua New Guinea and Gladstone.
In 1972 he bought a yacht and began to sail and explore various locations around the Southern Hemisphere. He later bought a fishing trawler and started a fishing business.
Shipwreck with family
In February 1981 Hatfield was aboard his fishing trawler with his partner Barbara Braddock and their two young daughters when they encountered Tropical Cyclone Cliff {{convert|150|mi}} off the Queensland coast. With the storm intensifying, they were soon forced to abandon ship. Braddock and their children escaped on the boat's life raft, but Hatfield was unable to join them since the raft immediately disappeared from view in the high waves. He managed to release and board the trawler's dinghy, and searched for the raft following the direction in which it had seemed to drift before disappearing. Eventually he sighted the raft and found it floating upside down, but found Braddock clutching the two girls underneath it. Despite having no food or water, the four managed to survive the cyclone and after two and half days adrift they were rescued by a passing Japanese coal carrier bound for Newcastle.{{Cite news |date=6 March 1981 |title=Shipwrecked family returns |pages=11 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/126172019/?terms=%22bill%20hatfield%22&match=1 |access-date=30 June 2023}}
See also
- Robin Knox-Johnston, completed the first (eastabout) single-handed non-stop unassisted circumnavigation
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://gis.ee/leaucommotion/ L'Eau Commotion circumnavigation GPS track]
- [https://www.sailblogs.com/member/leaucommotion/464273 L'Eau Commotion circumnavigation blog]
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Category:20th-century Australian engineers