Torresen Sailing Site recently had the chance of interviewing this 2 time Around Alone competitor.  Although not entered in this year's race, Hal gave an interesting perspective on the upcoming race. 

Biography of Hal Roth

Hal Roth was born in Cleveland in 1927 and was an aviator during World War II
and the Korean war.  He studied journalism and graduated from the
University of California at Berkeley.  Later he studied photography with
Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.  While working as a free-lance article writer
he began collecting material and photographs for a book on the John Muir
Trail in California's Sierra Nevada mountains which was published as
"Pathway in the Sky" (1965).

In 1962 he and his wife Margaret were introduced to small-boat sailing .
Five years later they embarked on a series of voyages.  The first was around
the Pacific via Tahiti, Japan, the Aleutian islands, and Alaska.  This
resulted in "Two on a Big Ocean" (1972).  Next came "Two Against Cape Horn,"
based on a voyage around South America.  He wrote "After 50,000 Miles"
(1977), a technical book about sailing which went through many printings.
Next came "The Longest Race" (1983), which is currently being expanded and
rewritten as "They Were All Heroes" (1998).

The Roths, who have won many awards and honors, sailed around the world from
1981 to 1985 which resulted in the book "Always A Distant Anchorage."
Later, sailing by himself, Hal made a solo circumnavigation in 1986-87 in the famous BOC single-handed race, and a second during the 1990-91 race, which he told about in two books: "Chasing the Long Rainbow," and "Chasing the Wind."   Roth's photographs have been in two museum shows, he has made documentary motion pictures about two of his sailing trips, and he has written hundreds of magazine articles.

Most recently, Hal and Margaret were sailing in Europe retracing the voyage
of Odysseus for a new book to be titles "We Followed Odysseus."

Now read Torresen Sailing Site's Interview with Hal Roth