Daring voyages in everyday boats
Peter K Poland talks to boat owners whose production vessels have been pressed into service in a variety of climes, from chilly Arctic waters to the balmy Caribbean
Production vessels from the chilly Arctic to the balmy Caribbean
Mention longdistance cruising and most people instinctively think of sliding down trade winds and blue seas to tropical waters, secluded islands and exotic wildlife. The odd coral reef doesn’t go amiss either… and nor do regular rum punches. After all, what’s the point in casting off to escape our temperate or downright chilly climate if you end up sailing in more of the same, or worse?
But cruising into Arctic or Antarctic wastes is becoming an increasingly popular pastime – especially if this is mixed in with a
dose of dangerous mountaineering. Modern GRP, steel or aluminium-hulled cruisers are also far less likely to crack up in ice floes than the timberplanked hulls of yesteryear, so the risk element has been reduced.
Bill Tilman was one of the first to set sail in pursuit of unclimbed and isolated mountains surrounded by freezing waters, lumps of ice and the occasional polar bear. He had always been a keen climber, but in 1953 – at the age of 55 – Tilman was beginning to find that many mountains were becoming too crowded for his taste. So he decided to go to sea, buying a 50-year-old, 45ft wooden Bristol Cutter called Mischief.
For 24 years he cruised every summer to distant chilly shores and unclimbed mountains. He sailed to western Greenland no fewer than 11 times, although in the process he sadly ended up losing two yachts there.
Firstly, Mischief was lost when she struck a rock pinnacle off Jan Mayen island, and efforts to repair her on a beach failed. Undeterred, Tilman then bought Sea Breeze, even though the yacht had a very poor survey. She sank after running aground on the ledge of an iceberg off Greenland. His next boat, Baroque, was yet another Bristol Cutter, and sailed on five voyages to the Arctic. By now, Tilman was 79 years old. As a break from the Arctic, he accepted the offer of a ride on a converted flat-bottomed tug with a mast planted on top and a keel welded underneath. Called En Avant, she set sail from Rio de Janeiro in 1977, heading for the Falkland Islands – but En Avant never arrived. And Tilman was never seen again.
However, his amazing exploits in elderly wooden craft (that were never designed or built to sail amongst icebergs and floes) and the books he wrote about his adventures quickly caught the imagination of other intrepid voyagers – and many were soon following in his wake. Modern GRP yachts can be beefed up around the waterline (should you wish to take this extra precaution) and are relatively easy to insulate against the cold, while modern, diesel-fuelled, blown warm air heaters can make life a lot more comfortable down below.
So, in recent times, cruising the Arctic wastes has become ever more popular, and modern mountaineers still get a buzz out of scaling isolated Arctic peaks. In addition, global warming means that transiting the North West Passage in a yacht has become less of a risky gamble.