Double record circumnavigation attempt delayed by weather

by Des Ryan on 1 Dec 2013 A New Zealander - but Florida based - sailor planning to sail around the world breaking two world records, beginning and ending in Florida, had to take a rain check Saturday because of bad weather. Dr. Stanley Paris had planned to set out Saturday afternoon in his 63ft Farr design sloop, but weather delayed his voyage until Sunday morning.

Saturday afternoon, Paris said, 'The weather is so rough at the inlet. The waves are ten feet high and it could dump my yacht onto the bottom between waves, and the tow boats say it's too risky to take me out.'

Aboard his boat named Kiwi Spirit, Paris will leave at 7 a.m. Sunday.

The 76-year-old told the local news outlet his goal is to sail around the world alone, making him the oldest person to accomplish the feat non-stop. (See previous Sail-World story.)

Japanese sailor Minaru Saito became the oldest person at age 77 to do a solo circumnavigation of the globe, but he did it with stops. He has now successfully made eight solo circumnavigations. On October 16, 2004 Saito left Japan on his yacht Shuten-dohji II and returned 233 days later to complete his seventh circumnavigation, non-stop - but he was only 70 at the time.

He finished his eighth solo circumnavigation, this time the 'wrong way around,' on September 17, 2011, after 1,080 days. He was 77 years old on completion, so Paris will have to complete the journey non-stop to create any kind of record.

However, the age record is not the only record he is trying to break. He aims to finish faster than anyone else before him, breaking the current record of 150 days, 6 hours and 1 minute held by Dodge Morgan.

Paris wants to make the same trip, about 27,000 miles, between 120 and 130 days.

He also plans on being the first person to ever do it without using any fossil fuels for power or propulsion.

Paris says no one has ever tried it without using hydrocarbons.

So he has solar panels, wind turbines and even hydrogenerators -- turbines that generate power when move through water -- to power his electronic equipment.