APRIL 26 — When is it possible to lose a race by nearly a month but still receive — and fully deserve — a hero’s welcome when you finally reach the finish line?

The answer, I would suggest, is when that race involves circling the entire globe in a small sailing boat.

That was exactly the scenario this week for Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman, who finished ‘last’ in the World Race, taking nearly 110 days, 10 hours and 59 minutes to complete the 23,321 miles round-the-world circuit from Barcelona, past the three Capes — Good Hope (Africa), Leeuwin (Australasia) and Horn (South America) — and back to Barcelona.

Although they finished a full 26 days after the winning duo, Swiss Bernard Stamm and Frenchman Jean Le Cam, there was no sense of disappointment whatsoever for Fa and Colman when they finally returned to shore late on Monday night, celebrating with gusto before being greeted by their equally delighted friends and family.

And neither should there be: this is truly an example of taking part being more important than winning, and simply completing the course is a victory in itself.

The achievement of Fa, from Hungary, and New Zealander Colman is even more impressive for three things.

Firstly, they barely knew each other before they set off together on New Year’s Eve; secondly, they were sailing in a boat designed and constructed by Fa himself, who at the age of 61 is 30 years the elder of his partner, and thirdly, Fa had not taken part in an event of this nature for 17 years.

Conrad Colman (pictured here) and Nandor Fa came in last in the World Race but were still given a hero’s welcome in Barcelona. — AFP pic

Their boat, The Spirit of Hungary, is now moored in Barcelona’s city centre marina and on Thursday I had the opportunity to go and have a good look at it.

The most striking thing about the craft is just how small it is: barely four or five metres wide and less than 20 metres long. Seeing the boat close up, the fact that it provided a permanent home for two men over the last four months and that they sailed it around the world is nothing short of mind-boggling.

Although the high costs of sailing and its lack of suitability to television coverage ensures that it remains a minority sport, there is, I think it’s fair to say, a universal fascination in all things connected with the sea. I once spent a large chunk of an afternoon discussing with some friends exactly why that might be.

Various theories were espoused, starting with my admittedly rather preposterous idea that “we”, human beings, share some deep and unconscious collective internal memory of the time, millions of years ago, that we were sea-dwelling creatures ourselves: some of the cells and DNA stands deep within our bodies, perhaps, can “remember” the sea and therefore we feel a great affinity with it.

Another (significantly more reasonable) suggestion is that the oceans have historically been a source of discovery, wealth and security.

In pre-modern times, our ancestors could always feel relatively safe by the sea, knowing that vigilant observation would allow any potential invaders to be easily spotted in advance and with time prepare defences or to escape — something not always possible in land-locked settlements.

And the waterways were also, of course, a conduit for treasures from abroad, with returning fishermen, traders and explorers delivering material and cultural wealth to their grateful fellow citizens.

The third and final theory is more aesthetic, proposing that we feel attracted to the sea quite simply because it looks nice. We find vistas of unchanging vastness naturally appealing — mountains being the other obvious example — and views of miles upon miles of seascape stretching out to the horizon and beyond are undeniably cloaked in serenity.

Whatever the real reasons, our lure to the sea is clearly apparent in the large number of major civilisation centres that have been built on or near the coast: Rio de Janeiro, New York, Cape Town, Tokyo, Venice, Sydney… seaside megacities are to be found on every continent.

However, as much as the oceans are wonderful for living near, playing in and conducting our business across, they are also extremely hostile and comfortable capable of overcoming any human defences. That lesson was most famously demonstrated by the sinking of the supposedly unsinkable Titanic a century ago, and is being tragically relearned in contemporary times with the horrifying number of refugees who are dying every day in the Mediterranean in a desperate attempt to reach a new life in Europe from North Africa.

For all its attraction, the sea remains a dangerous place and easily our master, covering 70 per cent of the planet’s surface and carelessly subjecting us mere humans to its fancies whenever the mood strikes.

The success of sailors such as Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman in partially subduing and overcoming its awesome power, therefore, is even more admirable.

Even if they came last.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.