A Cornish sailor has returned to the UK after a 17-month circumnavigation in which he used only an atlas for navigation.

Paddy Macklin, 52, arrived back in Falmouth after a ‘traditional’ circumnavigation via the three capes on his 27ft wooden Buchanan sloop with no EPIRB or proper charts.

His friend, Steve Ransley, said: ‘He didn’t want anybody to call help for him, he wanted to do it in the true tradition of going to sea and being prepared to drown like a a gentleman.’

He was feared lost in the Bay of Biscay just weeks into his voyage, when his family could not contact him via his satellite phone in poor weather.

But Mr Macklin had wrapped the phone up to protect it and only became aware of the major search operation that had been launched when he heard his name on the radio.

Then the former painter and decorator was forced to stop in Timaru, New Zealand when a knockdown damaged his boat off the Tasmanian coast and contaminated his food supplies.

The unscheduled stop scuppered his hopes of beating Sir Robin Knox Johnston’s around-the-world time of 312 days.

Mr Macklin now plans to sail the North West Passage.

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