Sail-World.com : Scorpius breaks free of Arctic ice, heading for another record
Scorpius breaks free of Arctic ice, heading for another record
|
|
|
'Scorpius, heading for more records in 30 months'
.
|
While Belzebub II, a fibreglass Hallberg Rassy, has just sailed through the McClure Strait, a first for a sailing boat in the Northwest Passage, there are more records being broken in the Arctic as the great melt continues.
On Tuesday a much larger sail boat, the 30 m/98' steel Russian yacht Scorpius, with a Russian-Ukrainian crew, which had been stuck in heavy ice flows to the north-east of the Jeannette Island (the De Long Islands) in the East Siberian Sea, broke free from the ice.
The yacht had been drifting with the ice for several days but the Captain, Sergei Nizovtsev, said the boat had not been damaged by the experience. However, the crew had been getting ready to evacuate if it became necessary. Getting free of the ice means that the yacht has become the first sailing ship to cruise around Spitsbergen Island from the north.
The Scorpius, crewed by four Russians and as many Ukrainians, left the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on September 25 of last year for a voyage around the South and the North Pole and has already set several world records for a Russian yacht.
 | Sergei Nizovtsev, owner and skipper of Scorpious, during their stop in Hobart - .. . |
In January the yacht, manned by a Russian-Ukrainian crew, set out from a Russian Polar station on a trip around the Antarctic. 90 days and 15,000 miles later the yacht entered the Ross Sea, setting the first of the four planned world records.
If their Arctic circumnavigation succeeds, the crew will become the first Russian yachtsmen to perform two such circumnavigations in a single year.
In the Antarctic summer the Scorpius claimed to set a new world record in sailing farther south into the Ross Sea, west Antarctica, than any other boat has gone. She became the first yacht to reach 77 degrees south latitude, according to Ukraine News Agency UNIAN. This has been disputed by other agencies who claim that the disaster-bound Berserk was further south in the Ross Sea before they disappeared in a storm in 2011. (A moth has sailed in waters further south too, but she didn't sail TO the Antarctic)
The yacht crew plans to sail for 30 continuous months, setting a Russian record in the duration of sailing, (American Rick Stowe sailed solo for more than three years finishing in 2010) covering a total distance of 70,000 nautical miles. The length of the route would become the fourth record for the proud Russian/Ukrainian crew.
They have no plans to return to land before sailing through all the five oceans.
by Sail-World Cruising round-up
Click on the FB Like link to post this story to your FB wall
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=101817
7:55 AM Fri 7 Sep 2012GMT
Click here for printer friendly version
Click here to send us feedback or comments about this story.
Click for further information on
Adventure Sailing
Related News Stories:
MORE STORIES ...
|
|
|
Our Advertisers are committed to our sport, please support them!
This site and its contents are © Copyright TetraMedia Pty. Ltd and/or the original author, photographer etc. All Rights Reserved.
Photographs are copyright by law. If you wish to use or buy a photograph you must contact the photographer directly (there is a hyperlink in most cases to their website, or do a Google search.) with your request.
Please do not contact
Sail-World.com
as we cannot give permission for use of other photographer’s images.
Only if the photographer named on the image is Sail-world.com, Powerboat-world.com, Marinebusiness-world.com or NZBoating-World.com.
Contact us
.
Ph: +61 2 8006 1873
or complete our
feedback form
Contact us
.
View our Privacy Policy.
[ Go Home]
[ Banner Advertising Specification]
[Bot Archive ]
Customised news feeds -Marine Industry companies, Clubs and Associations have their own customised version of our news feed on their website.
Look_here_to_see_examples
|
CLD
| | |
