Eight Bells for John Guzzwell 1930-2024

Feb 4, 2025

John Guzzwell, who inspired dozens of sailors with his legendary, solo circumnavigation in his small, wooden, hand-built boat, Trekka, died at home in Poulsbo Washington with his wife, Dorothy, by his side. He was 94.

Guzzwell, born in the UK in 1930, grew up on Jersey Island in a family intensely connected to the sea. They were interned in a German POW camp during World War II, then lived in South Africa. Returning to Jersey, Guzzwell sought new horizons and recalling his father’s tales of British Columbia, he emigrated to Canada and settled in Victoria in 1953. Along the way, he’d qualified as a joiner and he put his skills to work in fulfilling a long-held dream: building his own boat. He chose a design by J. Laurent Giles of Lymington and constructed Trekka, an 18.8-foot yawl behind a downtown Victoria fish and chips shop. In September 1955 he set sail for Hawaii via San Francisco with a four-hp outboard motor useful only in calm waters and four gallons of gasoline. It would be four years until his return to Victoria.

Guzzwell was greeted enthusiastically in the ports he visited and along the way, he met Miles and Beryl Smeeton who were also circumnavigating in their wooden ketch, Tsu Hang. When the Smeetons wanted to sail past Cape Horn, they invited Guzzwell to join as crew. It saved their lives. A rogue wave pitchpoled and severely damaged the yacht. Beryl washed overboard. With Guzzwell’s added grit and skills, they rescued Beryl, jury-rigged the boat, limped into port and survived.

After sailing Trekka in Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean and the Panama Canal, Guzzwell returned to Victoria in 1959 to great acclaim, having braved a cyclone on his own. At the time, Trekka was the smallest boat to have circumnavigated the world. In 1963, he published Trekka Round the World, detailing his adventures and inspiring many more to sail around the world (a new, updated edition was published in 1999). In 1980, the later Trekka owners Marian and Clifford Cain also circumnavigated the globe. Today, she is part of the Maritime Museum of BC’s fleet of vessels.

Guzzwell continued to build boats specializing in cold-moulded construction, race in local and offshore events, and advise other boatbuilders while also giving talks on solo seafaring. In 2003 he served as Honorary Commodore at the Maritime Museum of BC’s Classic Boat Festival.

Guzzwell’s Trekka has not just become a museum artifact but continues to arouse interest: this winter 18 solo sailors representing 11 countries will compete in the Mini Globe Race 2025. Beginning and ending in Antigua, the racers will be sailing identical one-design Class Globe 580 (19 feet) plywood yachts designed by Polish naval architect, Janusz Maderski. The 580s pay tribute to Trekka’s design. Before he died, Guzzwell had accepted the role of patron of the Mini Globe Race.

Marianne Scott