Yvan Bougnon's circumnavigation in a beach cat project

[Blackburn]

I still reckon that Japanese fella that skied down Mt Everest about 40 years ago set the standard for mad adventure, and all others since are just not measuring up.

I'd never heard of that exploit Mr.E, thanks for mentioning it. I see that Yuichiro Miura who did this, used a large parachute as a brake. So then I understand how it was possible, and perhaps not quite as lunatic foolhardy as it sounds otherwise.

But Wikipedia also mentions that eight people died during the ascent of Everest in connection with that project (but it wasn't made clear in the film?). That is an aspect of extreme mountaineering which I don't have any taste for.

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In regard to Yvan Bourgnon, I suppose that he's in close touch all the time with his support boat, and that it is on station not many hours from him. If he's sailing a little slower on account of the lost rudder, that makes it easier for the support boat to stay close if he needs help. He is 42 years old and has two kids I think, so I assume that he has no unhealthy fatalist attitude towards injury or death.

That assumption could be wrong however?

So far he's had a couple of difficult solo capsizes and fallen out of the boat only to be saved by his tether. I don't like hearing of these dangerous scrapes and I hope there aren't any more. But it sells newspapers, as they used to say.

Just today Ivan's sailed past the half-way mark on this leg, and it seems he's getting 'enough' sleep, since he says he's in good shape in this facebook entry Corley quoted from.

Sunday, 16 March 22h30:

"I'm making fast progress in spite of the broken rudder. There's about 15-20 knots of wind from the Southeast. Since late last night the squalls have resumed. The autopilot on port has stopped working. I'm kind of in the same situation as in the Atlantic, lacking a rudder and autopilot, except there's more distance remaining to cover... I don't have any more fish hooks, or bait for fishing, but I don't lack food. My water supply is going to get limited, I'll try to collect some during the next squalls.

I'm in great shape"

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What will Bourgnon do, if he isn't able to raise the additional sponsorship he says is needed to keep the quote-unquote 'media' boat (notre «bateau-plateforme-médias») along for the rest of the trip?

Is he then going to keep going alone, with no escorting "bateau-platforme-medias" from French Polynesia to the Red Sea?

Doesn't that sound more hazardous, than what he's doing at the moment?

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Maybe Yvan and his four escorting Platformeurs should in that case find some temporary jobs in French Polynesia, until they have the money they need.

 

[Blackburn]

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Fedor Konyukhov in his project to row solo across the Pacific - he's 85 days out of Chile and near Tahiti now - is doing a much better job of reporting his progress, than Bourgnon and his 'bateau-platforme-medias'.

Here's Konyukhov's news page.

Here's a mapping page, you can scroll down and see where he is.


Here's an interesting quote from Konyukhov a few days ago about sheepskins (which you may recall Meade Gougeon used on his seat in his sailing canoe in the Everglades Challenge):

... Last night was quiet, no rain, with almost a full moon. I slept on the deck, using a sheep skin as a mattress. Before Tourgoyak (the boat's name) was shipped from England to Chile, my friend Charlie Pitcher gave me four sheep skins. He told me that the British rowers use this material in the ocean and it serves them much better than any polyester or synthetics. I cut some for the rowing seat but kept one intact to sleep on. Its ability to stay dry for a prolonged time on the water makes it a great material for long trips on the sea. All other fabrics that I have with me stay dry for only a couple of hours.

LINK

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Like Bourgnon, Konyukhov reports about a great deal of torrential drumming rain. But unlike Yvan, Fedor has an aft cabin in his 30 ft carbon rowing boat in which he can escape and get some sleep.

The umbrella that Yvan took with him from Panama sounds stupid in comparison?

... Fedor on the satphone: "I have noticed a pattern that bad things typically happen at night time. Last night wasn’t an exception. I got caught in a powerful thunderstorm. The wind was spinning the boat 360 degrees. The rain was as thick as a wall. There was no point to remain on deck. I secured the oars, set Tourgoyak adrift, and battened myself into the aft cabin. Despite my exhaustion, I could not fall asleep. The rain drops were drumming on the roof at full volume. Sometime later into the night, I heard another sound. Someone, or something, was scratching on top of the roof. That’s strange, I thought. I can understand hearing a scratching sound underneath the boat, but who would climb on top of the aft cabin? I laid still in my sleeping bag, listening intently. The scratching sound didn’t go away but instead was spreading around the entire roof. There was nothing to do but climb out of the sleeping bag and go investigate. I opened the hatch and carefully looked outside. What did I see? Three birds, similar to our pigeons, were trying with all their might to hang onto the arch amongst the antennas and windsock. The wind and the rain were mercilessly beating them down. The birds would slide down the solar panels and try to climb back again. I picked up one of them. It was tiny and delicate. I could feel her fast beating heart and the small bones under my fingers. I set her down in the cockpit and went back into the cabin. I turned the music player on and put the ear phones in. That was the only way to block out the noise of the storm and struggling birds. Surprisingly, I slept quite well. In fact, it was one of the most restful nights since entering French Polynesia. ...

LINK

Konyukhov is financially backed by a couple of businessmen in Chelyabinsk, so he's also not losing any sleep about finding more sponsors.

 

[Blackburn]

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Another digression about Konyukhov, in 2006 he took this ice boat to Greenland and there's mention of a film about it which I can't find. Must have been an inadequate boat for the conditions on the ice cap there?

On one Russian site it was written that the boat was built for Konyakhov in Exmouth. Anybody know who that might be, or how far Konyakhov got?

The first crossing of the Greenland ice cap was by Norwegian Fritjof Nansen going from East to West in 1888. There are katabatic winds there, blowing all the time downhill from the center. Nansen had sails on the sleds which his expedition used.
Since the mid 1990's there have been a number of people who have done something just as remarkable, sailing the much longer South-North, and then with skis, using parachutes or kites.

 

[Blackburn]

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I found a thread about this 2006 project on SA.



Among the 15 trivial/joking posts, there was one which was informative:

This guy is as mad as a hatter:

Fedor Konyukhov plans to leave for Greenland in April-May 2006. He is going to cross the largest island on the Earth from the east to the west, along the Polar Circle on an iceboat (a trimaran on skis with sails).

The “Modern Academy for the Humanities” www.muh.ru iceboat was built in England by Rowsell & Morrison Shipyard in 2004. The Danish Polar Center in Copenhagen issued all permissive documents for the expedition.

In case of a successful crossing of Greenland, a more complicated and larger-scale project “Crossing Antarctica via South Pole” will follow.

The goal of the expedition:
To cross the continent on a motorless vehicle using only the wind power for the first time in the history of the human development of Antarctica.

Unique nature of the idea:
To sail through the three poles of Antarctic: the South Geographical Pole, the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility (a point equidistant from all coasts of Antarctica) and the Magnetic Pole.

Vehicle:
The iceboat is a wooden construction glued over with fiber grass fabric, equipped with a carbon fiber mast, three front sails and a main sail. In general, the construction reminds of a sailing trimaran equipped with two-meter-long side skis and a short front ski with steel edges. The skis are specially designed and built for the iceboat and have no analogues in the world.

The dimensions of the iceboat:
The overall length - 9 meters (30 feet)
The height of the mast - 11 meters
The rigging consists of 4 sails: main sail, gennaker, solent and staysail
The weight of the equipped construction – 300 kilograms.
The ice boat was transported to Greenland in 2005 and put under the storage at local warehouse. The logistics partner is “Arctic Adventure” company www.arctic-adventure.dk from Copenhagen is the biggest privately owned Greenland tour operator.

Link

 

[W17 designer]

Always interesting Blackburn ;-)
Here's what I found out ...
The North American ‘Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club’ reported earlier this millennium:
“A top Russian explorer, Fedor Konyukhov, will attempt to become the first person to cross the South Pole in an ice boat during the winter of 2005-2006. The $91,400 ice boat trimaran has been designed by a marine contractor in Exmouth, England to sail across ice on three skis. The 4LIYC's esteemed boat builder Bill Mattison was consulted by the builders for this project”.
As I have a contact in Devonshire, I'll see what else I can find out.

This Konyukhov fellow has done EVERYTHING !
Crossed oceans, Poles, Capes, Everest … and more than once. See his small, very personal Moscow ‘museum’ here …
http://globaldiscussion.net/topic/1...s-the-fedor-konyukhov-anchor-museum/&langid=1

Not possible to say too much about this amazing adventurer and to my mind, there is much to learn from his experiences.
Here are notes about his circumnavigation of Antarctica.
Of special interest is this note:
“The Southern Ocean keeps testing my yacht and gives me some hard times … but this is all part of the game and I don’t feel that it does it intentionally. Kerguelen (Desolation) Island was here a million years ago, as well as the gale force winds. I have to adapt …. and live with that. It’s all in the power of Nature. I came here to witness this unique environment and learn something for [and of] myself”.
See also: http://yachtpals.com/boating/antarctica

 

[W17 designer]

Fedor Konyukhov

Re: his on-going crossing of the Pacific in a special row boat, he's clearly far better protected than Yvan can ever be. His rowboat would be self-righting for starters.
This may be of additional interest to readers though ...

Quote:
“On December 12, 2012, Feodor Konyukhov announced that his new project of solo rowing across the Pacific Ocean is scheduled to start in December of 2013. In early December 2013, Fedor flew to England to visit the famous naval architect Phil Morrison to finalize the design of his new ocean row boat. The boat (working title “K9”) will be constructed in Demon Yachts in Ipswich, East Coast of England. In 2002, Fedor asked Phil Morrison to design him a light/fast one off ocean rowboat that was to become the famous Uralaz. On that rowboat Fedor set out across the Atlantic Ocean leaving La Gomera and reaching Barbados in just 46 days. That became a new world record for a solo row across the Atlantic. The design of the boat was so successful that it was used to build more than 20 ocean rowboats.
The person in charge of building and equipping the boat is Charlie Pitcher. In February 2010, Charlie completed a solo rowboat crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in just 54 days, beating both the race and UK solo records. In January 2013, he will be starting another solo across the Atlantic to set a new world record of 40 days ……. “
See more here .. with photos
http://www.konyukhov.ru/eng/newproject/document42190.shtml

So how is Yvan making out with one rudder ?

 

[W17 designer]

Re the Ice yacht Trimaran

Your QUOTE: “On one Russian site it was written that the boat was built for Konyakhov in Exmouth. Anybody know who that might be, or how far Konyakhov got? UNQUOTE

My contact came through for part of this ;-) As for his rowboat that crossed the Atlantic, it was also built by Rowsell and Morrison in Exmouth, Devonshire, UK. Still no news on how the adventure ended.

Here’s a link for a sketch of 'the yacht'.
http://www.rowsellsails.co.uk/?page=projects

 

[Blackburn]

^^^

I'm very glad to hear of your interest, Mike!



It has been a modern tradition with explorers and adventurers, that many of the most successful and remembered were those who were able to write really good books about their experiences.

Now the immediate focus is not foremost on books, but whether they can feed websites with good up-to-date material.

Sail around the world in less than 46 days now, and rather than a book there is a short video on the net.

It would have been impossible for Fritjof Nansen, Thor Heyerdahl, or Bernhard Moitessier if they'd been active now. They became famous and rich on account of their marvelous books; and all the others, I have a copy of 'ICE' which Tristan Jones was kind enough to autograph, which I spent many hours delightedly reading.

...

Fyodor Konyukhov is quite the adventurous oddball, isn't he.

Here's a brief bio I came across on the Russian news site RT describing him basically as an aesthete with better than average ability to punish himself - something the Russians have long viewed as magnificently virtuous:

... Entering a seminary in St. Petersburg Fyodor never finished his studies. One day the rector called him into his office and said, “You love life too much. Go, live with the people…” He made four circumnavigations and crossed the Atlantic fourteen times. Fyodor is the first and so far the only person in the world to have reached the five extreme Poles of the planet. His name was entered into the encyclopedia “Chronicle of Mankind”. By the age of fifty he had made more than forty unique trips and climbs expressing his vision of the world in paintings and books. As a religious man, Fyodor Konyukhov agrees that the meaning of life of an Orthodox believer is to seek God’s grace, to learn what God has in store for one and to live one’s life in keeping with God’s commandments, preparing for eternity. But when asked why risking life was so often? Fyodor says: “Because suffering is the only way you can see the Lord.”
Link

Konyukhov speaks and writes well, and he's well-translated into English. I guess that his ability to convey some philosophical depth to his projects is important for the sponsors he has.

Francis Joyon is something of a similar person, but he hasn't got the extemporaneous ability to elaborate and be interesting, which Konyukhov appears to have, from my brief reading.

 

[Blackburn]

My contact came through for part of this ;-) As for his rowboat that crossed the Atlantic, it was also built by Rowsell and Morrison in Exmouth, Devonshire, UK. Still no news on how the adventure ended.

Here’s a link for a sketch of 'the yacht'.
http://www.rowsellsails.co.uk/?page=projects

I've found plenty of info about the 'ski-sailer'.

Since there is no news from Yvan the last 2 days, we might as well digress a little more:


At the bottom right corner of Konyukhov's site there's an ad for his Russian-language magazine. Applying Google translate to the magazine, I found this 2006 article covers the expedition plan, their tests, their efforts. Otherwise there was only brief mention of the ski-sailer in another 2007 article, when the team was again on Greenland, but then using sled dogs instead of the ski-sailer.

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If you read that Google translate, it incorrectly says 'snowmobile' where the proper translation is 'ice boat', and any mention of 'sand' is supposed to be snow or ice.

I won't spoil what suspence there may be, about how the 'Ski-sailer' performed!
Or what perils they met with!

We can do a little summary later.

 

[Blackburn]

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Here's an update from Yvan on day 11 (which was perhaps posted closer to day 13, which he's in now):

In the eleventh day at sea, I finally had sun again after not seeing it for a week. It's as if I hadn't seen a fine day in months, super enjoyable. The heat at once became a little difficult but I prefer again dealing with that instead of constantly being wet.

As for the boat, everything is OK apart from that my second autopilot is also starting to malfunction. As to only sailing with one rudder, that is going well for the moment because I'm sailing downwind (with less forces than reaching). Given moderate winds this should hold to my destination; I'm crossing my fingers.

Me, I'm starting to get a lot of itching, burning, small skin fissures... nothing serious; I'll manage to look after myself.

Forward Sailing made a genaker which works very very well at night. As a result I can sleep more peacefully; of course I'm having to sleep with the sheet in hand, ready to respond, but things are easier and I must confess that the Pacific is a bit more merciful than the Atlantic.

When you are on a little boat, the horizon, the world, the ocean all seem even more vast. On a larger boat one spends a lot of time inside. Here I'm always watching the horizon, always looking ahead to be ready if the boat stuffs a wave, I'm looking at the infinite much more often.

Link

The weather function on the tracker forecasts the wind weakening during the next few days. He has 730 miles left to go now and will get ashore in 4 or 5 days at the most?

Konyukhov the rower noted that when he approached the Marquesas, he was visited by sharks under his boat.

Take care not to fall overboard, Yvan!

 

[Blackburn]

...

Yvan has done a tack north up towards his rhumb line today, in NE winds, and although he sails without forecasts, that may be a good choice because the wind is supposed to lighten the next few days especially to the south of his rhumbline. He has 600 miles remaining to Nuku Hiva.

About 1000 nm beyond Nuku Hiva, halfway between French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, rower Fyodor Konyukhov is in different circumstances:

20/03/2014, Day 88

“It’s late evening right now, according to my watch. But during the last few days it’s been hard to distinguish between day and night. The sun cannot penetrate the thick layer of dark clouds. And there is no visible horizon separating the ocean and the skies. Everything is enveloped in this massive grayness. I’ve been using the reserve accumulators since the main ones have been running dangerously low. The reserve batteries don’t run for too long either. After three months and hundreds of charging and recharging the batteries don’t work as well as they used to.

The head wind is pushing the boat towards Motu One (Bellinghausen) atoll. There is only 67 miles between us, which is about one day given the circumstances. It might be impossible to row past the entire Society Islands and leave them at the port side. There is a chance I will have to go in between some of the islands.

The ocean is loud, stirred up; the waves are enormous. The tropical storm in the west has turned into a tropical cyclone. It’s been christened Mike. This is the tenth storm-cyclone development in the 2013-2014 season.

If the weather reports are true, I have 24 more hours of these conditions; then it should become easier. I’m with you. Fedor.”

Link

Konyukhov worries that he'll have trouble avoiding the islands, because his record attempt is not supposed to stop anywhere until he gets to Brisbane. He's ahead of his schedule on account of very favourable conditions after departing from Chile.

 

[W17 designer]

Duo

Have to say, it's exciting to have two intrepid adventurers in the central Pacific at the same time! Thanks for all the news 'Blackburn'.
Not been able to update my own website follow-up of late as I've lost my capable webmaster. If anyone with good HTML knowledge can give me a couple of hours a month, please drop me a line at http://www.smalltridesign.com/write_mike.html

 

[Blackburn]

^^^

Intrepid adventurer #2 is working on his tan, doing 2kts according to the tracker, complaining of no wind, that life onboard is "like a giant rotisserie", and has only done 20nm since we last checked. Has he got enough water? There's 480nm remaining.

Occasionally we've noticed you can't believe everything you see on these trackers... his speed is given as 2 knots while the weather feature is showing 10 knots wind. It is forecasting increasing wind, so he'll be arriving on the cannibal island about the same time he's cooked?

lol

 

[W17 designer]

Fried chicken

Love the humor buddy

 

[Blackburn]

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