Huge Marine Oil Painting Racing Yacht Robertsons Golly Transatlantic Race

British huge important Post War 20th Century marine oil painting on canvas Racing Yacht Robertsons Golly Transatlantic Race 38 Ohlson Clare Francis Mbe Sailing. Impress your clients & guests, make an art statement with this exceptionally brave woman nautical sailing masterpiece to display on your office wall space or home interior. Signed Beetham at the bottom by the known marine British artist Joe Beetham. It is set in a fine decorative moulded gilt frame, with hanging thread on the back ready for immediate wall display. Title also inscribed verso “Clare Francis Sailing Robertsons Golly (38 Ohlson in Observer Royal Western Single Handed Transatlantic Race 1976” By the artist Joe Beetham. Your focus is first drawn to the centre where you can see the known number 7 racing yacht called Robertsons Golly sailing along really rough chippy high seas, being captained and sailed by the brave incredible first ever woman Clare Francis to finish this transatlantic race. Clare can be seen at the stern wearing her waterproof yellow raincoat, she is crouched over & busy with securing the anchor, you can feel the intense storm weather that she is sailing through, the name of the yacht is sown on the bow also on the stern. Only 2 small sails are up, the ship is rolling and listing towards the right. Large crashing waves can seen in the background, huge swells, above with mainly darm storm clouds. Biography of the artist Joe Beetham a known prolific British maritime artist who was born at the end of Ww1 in the year 1918 to 2012. His love of marine art began when he started to go sailing with is dad. Beetham adored painting marine subjects & his art career spanned more then 40 years, he was known to have lived in Lymm. His fascination with ships particularly sailing boats started when Beetham started his working as an apprentice engineer in the Vickers boatyard which was located in Barrow-in-Furness then he later to Ici in Runcorn where he then started to work as an engineer in construction. He retired early from his engineering work in the 1970’s whilst he was still in his 40’s, so he focus on his deep passion which was for painting. His first ever commission was to paint for one of the division chairman in Ici. He then went on to paint for the other Ici division chairman who also requested that he paint for them. His artworks can be seen in many private & public collections around the world, like in the Royal Marines Museum. Also at the Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port along with the National Waterways Museum. Sir Edward Heath also published Beetham’s artwork of Trafalgar & Titanic. He had 2 sons John & Robert, he was also a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club along with being the official measurer for handicapping racing boats, he died in 2012. On 5th June 1976 Clare Francis set out from Plymouth Sound in her yacht - Robertson's Golly. She was competing in the Royal Western/Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. 29 days later, on Sunday 4th July, she sailed into Newport Rhode Island becoming the first woman to finish. She had encountered horrendous weather conditions, she finished with her self streering gear broken but she had the title of the fastest and smallest woman in the race weighing at 7.5 stone and being 5 feet 2 inches in height. Thirty years on, and the yacht is now owned by the Meridian Trust. It had repairs in Lymington before then sailing to Portsmouth in 2006. Clare Mary Francis Mbe (born 17 April 1946) is a British novelist who in her first career as a yachtswoman has twice sailed across the Atlantic on her own. She was the first woman to captain a successful boat on the Whitbread Around the World race. Francis was born in Thames Ditton in Surrey and spent summer holidays on the Isle of Wight, where she learned to sail. She was educated at the Royal Ballet School, then gained a degree in economics at University College London. In 1973, after working in marketing for three years, she took leave to sail singlehandedly across the Atlantic in the Nicholson 32 Gulliver G, departing from Falmouth in Cornwall and arriving, 37 days later, at Newport, Rhode Island. Following this, she received sponsorship to take part in the 1974 Round Britain Race with Eve Bonham, again in Gulliver G. They finished in third place. In 1975, she took part in the Azores and Back and the L'Aurore singlehanded races; and, in 1976, she competed in the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in her Ohlson 38 yacht Robertson's Golly, finishing thirteenth overall and setting a new women's single-handed transatlantic record. She also took part in that year's L'Aurore singlehanded race. During 1977 and 1978, she became the first woman to skipper a yacht in the Whitbread Round the World Race, finishing in fifth place in her Swan 65 Adc Accutrac. Francis married a draughtsman named Jacques Redon in 1977. He became a crew member on her yacht. They divorced in 1986. The marriage produced one child. Francis suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and is a trustee of the UK charity Action for Me. After writing three accounts of her sailing experiences, she turned to fiction and is the author of eight best-sellers Night Sky (1983), Red Crystal (1985), Wolf Winter (1987), Requiem (1989),The Killing Winds (1992),Deceit (1993),Betrayal (1995),A Dark Devotion (1997),Keep Me Close (1999),A Death Divided (2001),Homeland (2003) & Unforgotten (2008). Provenance Property of the late Michael Blyth-Whitelock, auction label verso & in the collection of Cheshire Antiques Consultant. 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