Next month it will be 40th anniversary since Donald Crowhurst set out in his hopelessly inadequate boat to sail around the world single handed non-stop.

He was a young electronics engineer worried about his failing business and had his eye on the cash prize offered to the winner of the Sunday Times Golden Globe award. He built an untried 40ft trimaran for the race only to find out later that it wasnt up to the task.

He was caught up in an incredible publicity frenzy and entered into a very bad financial arrangement whereby if his mission failed, his wife and 4 young children could lose their home.

When he realised his boat was hopelessly inadequate for the journey, he decided to send false position reports and cheerful news bulletins to his enthusiastic press agent back home, keeping a second logbook with the real locations.

Instead of continuing on the race course, he sailed around in circles off the coast of Brazil and planned to join the tail enders of the race, thinking that as a late finisher, logs wouldnt be checked by judges.

After 243 days alone, on July 1 1969. he either jumped or fell overboard and drowned. The diaries he left made it quite clear that he had suffered a severe mental decline.

The gallant gentleman Robin Knox-Johnston who won the race, donated his winnings to Donald Crowhursts widow and children.

When watching the news lately, I noticed there was a lot of Crowhursting going on - people in the know talking up bad situations and not telling us what the true situation is. Maybe youve noticed it too.