OBITUARY

Tony Bullimore obituary

Sailor and community activist whose dramatic rescue from the Southern Ocean in 1997 captured the public imagination
The Times
Tony Bullimore in 2006 preparing to challenge Ellen MacArthur’s round-the-world record
Tony Bullimore in 2006 preparing to challenge Ellen MacArthur’s round-the-world record
GETTY IMAGES
The Times

Tony Bullimore’s rescue on January 9, 1997, from his overturned yacht deep in the Southern Ocean was one of the greatest survival feats in maritime history, which captured the imagination of armchair adventurers the world over. After four days, during which he had to survive on chocolate inside an air pocket of an upturned hull, he was plucked from the sea by an Australian frigate that was sailing beyond all previously known limits.

A self-styled “Del Boy of yachting”, Bullimore had been sailing his 60ft ketch, the Exide Challenger, in the 23,000-mile Vendée Globe race, one of the ocean-going calendar’s most gruelling challenges. Competitors are required to sail single-handedly without stopovers from Les Sables- d’Olonne in western France down the coast of Africa, around