Peter K Poland talks to two boat owners whose production vessels have been pressed into service in chilly Arctic waters

Mention long-distance cruising and most people instinctively think of sliding down trade winds and blue seas to tropical waters, secluded islands and exotic wildlife, rather than high latitude sailing.

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 mountaineering.

Modern GRP, steel or aluminium-hulled cruisers are also far less likely to crack up in ice floes than the timber planked hulls of yesteryear, so the risk element has been reduced.

A yacht moored against a rock during a high latitude cruise

Dodo’s Delight lands climbers on a 900m wall in Greenland: scary stuff, and not every high latitude sailor’s cup of tea! Credit: Bob Shepton Collection

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 high latitude voyages.

Bill Tilman - one of the first high latitude exploeers

Bill Tilman was one of the first sailors to explore high latitude cruising grounds in search of mountains to climb. Credit: Getty

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 high latitude 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 high latitude waters 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.

Award-winning high latitude explorer

Sailor: Ewan Southby-Tailyour
Boat: Black Velvet 3 – a gaff-rigged version of the Tradewind 35
Cruising: Iceland

One such Arctic aficionado is my old friend Ewen Southby-Tailyour.

I first met him in the ’60s when we crewed on a 36-footer taking part in the Fastnet Race… during which we ate and drank extremely well, but failed dismally to win any prizes.

As a Royal Marines officer (finally retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel), Ewen spent 13 Arctic winters developing techniques and craft for supporting Commando forces with landing, raiding and assault craft.

He was named Yachtsman of the Year 1982 in recognition of his Falklands surveys – carried out largely under sail – that were so valuable to our forces during the war, and then he twice won the Royal Cruising Club’s Goldsmith Exploration Award for his sailing expeditions in the Falklands and Iceland.

A man drinking wine on a boat while on a high latitude cruise

Ewen Southby-Tailyour enjoying the pleasures of high latitude life on Black Velvet 3. Credit: Ewen Southby-Tailyour

The only other yachtsmen to win this twice are Bill Tilman and Pete Hill.

Ewen’s other major claim to fame is the Jester Challenge series of long-distance races for ‘everyday’ yachts under 30ft, which he organised until recently.

Ewen’s most famous yacht is Black Velvet 3; a gaff-rigged version of the Tradewind 35 designed by John Rock.

This long-keel cruiser weighs just under 20,000lb, has a ballast ratio of 42.6% and a hefty displacement-length ratio (DLR) of 504.

Ewen describes her as ‘a superb sea boat – bulletproof, safe, steady and slow. She was designed to carry 2.5 tons of expedition stores and was never supposed to be an ocean greyhound. One of her reasons for living is to take ’ologers, ’ographers or ’ologists to places they could not otherwise visit.

‘In this duty, she has suffered, patiently, hundreds of hours in the north Atlantic waiting for the elusive Wilson’s petrel, as ornithologists become copiously sick while staring through gyrating and powerful binoculars.’

One of Black Velvet 3’s most memorable expeditions was the 1997 two-handed race to Iceland that acted as a feeder to her main adventure of that year – to land and support a team of climbers who went on to conquer seven peaks.

a yacht sailing in the fjords

Black Velvet 3 enters the first of five uncharted fjords. Credit: Ewen Southby-Tailyour

Ewen wrote: ‘Preparation for the pack-ice is much the same as for any cruise but includes poles for fending off ice floes, a sacrificial rubber dinghy and a .303 rifle’ – presumably in case a polar bear fancies you for lunch.

‘Charts are leftovers from 1997: uncorrected of course, for there is nothing to correct – yet!’

The real drama, however, unfurled on the return trip from Iceland to Plymouth, and proved just how challenging cruising in this part of the world can be.

With only one of the climbers left on board as crew Ewen set sail, writing: ‘The wild slide downwind to the Reykjanes peninsula was good stuff, and as we finally cleared the island our hopes for the predicted fast passage were encouraged; my son Hamish was due to marry on 17 August, and while we had plenty of time I was anxious to be in England a good two weeks in advance.’

Then, in Ewen’s words, it all started to go very wrong.

A south-easterly gale sprang up and heavy seas began to sweep the deck and fill the cockpit, carrying away the inflatable danbuoy in the process (but obligingly leaving the EPIRB behind).

With the wind reaching a steady Force 9 the seas became heavier and worryingly steeper, so it was time to stream warps and head north because – even with trysail and engine – it was impossible to beat into the seas, and reaching across them was too dangerous.

Then – as sea room began to run out – Ewen decided that ‘the only alternative was to head for Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar Islands.

But this too had its problems, for steering a set course under warps in dangerous breaking seas and 50+ knots of wind is not a precise art.’

A yacht heading towards Iceland

Black Velvet 3 makes landfall in Iceland. Credit: Ewen Southby-Tailyour

In the nick of time, however, they were let off the hook as the wind veered and the glass rose. Force 9 was only reached in gusts, and the intermediate lulls were a mere Force 6.

The warps were brought inboard, the heavy weather jib and half the staysail set, and a course made for Barra Head.

They had been at sea for four days and were still less than a day’s sailing from the Iceland coast.

After this brief respite, the wind increased to 55 knots and backed to due south – and they still hadn’t made enough easting.

They would have to stop the boat dead in the water to avoid a lee shore.

Crew Dave had been reading Heavy Weather Sailing and suggested a sea anchor, but they didn’t have one; so the trysail with lines to two corners and about 200ft of warp went over the bow and a ‘Spanish-reefed’ storm jib was hoisted on a running backstay.

Having lashed the wheel and gone below, Ewen wrote in the log: ‘Bloody conditions! I have run out of options and would prefer to be picking blackberries’, then played solitaire on his laptop and tried to write a new chapter of his book about the French Resistance (his many books are available on Amazon).

He later said: ‘These confused seas produced worse sailing and living conditions than any I have ever met before – even when compared to parts of the Southern Ocean I have sailed in.’

In due course – after another Force 8 west of St Kilda and a southerly gale off Tusker – they crept around the Plymouth breakwater, having left Reykjavik nearly three weeks previously.

Ewen wrote: ‘The blackberry hedges beckoned strongly – at least until after the wedding – which I made with five days to spare. And the “Home Secretary” seemed pleased to see me. Next? The upper reaches of the Nile strike me as being a good bet!’

The moral of the tale? Even in July and August, voyaging in high latitude waters can be exciting, bordering on hazardous.

But those who have been there once love it and keep being lured back for more – and thanks to modern production yachts, navigation and communication systems, many Arctic novices are tempted to give it a go for the first time.

A full and varied life

High latitude adventurer

Sailor: Bob Shepton
Boat: Westerly Discus – Dodo’s Delight 2
Cruising: Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland, Cape Horn

Still on the subject of Royal Marines and Arctic voyagers, the Reverend Bob Shepton is another regular and famous visitor to the frozen north.

In a full and varied life, Bob has been a Royal Marines officer, a youth leader in the east end of London and Kilburn and a chaplain to two schools.

However, when he retired, he swapped his pulpit for the cockpit of Dodo’s Delight, his Westerly Discus 33.

A man with grey hair smiling while sailng

High latitude sailor Bob Shepton. Credit: Bob Shepton Collection

This boat was replaced by a second Westerly Discus (also called Dodo’s Delight by permission of the Registrar of Shipping), after his first Discus was destroyed by fire while wintering in Greenland in 2005.

Over his remarkable sailing career, Bob has sailed over 140,000 miles. These include a circumnavigation via Antarctica and Cape Horn, 15 Atlantic crossings, numerous cruises to the Arctic on mountaineering expeditions and a ski traverse of the remote Bylot Island (at the head of Baffin Bay) that took in the ascent of eight peaks over 10 days.

In the process, he has been awarded the ‘Piolets d’Or 2011’ (with a team of mountaineers), the Cruising Club of America’s 1995 Blue Water Medal, a brace of Royal Cruising Club (RCC) Tilman Medals, the RCC Goldsmith Medal, two Ocean Cruising Club Barton Cups, three OCC Vasey Vases and the OCC Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2013 Yachtsman of the Year Award.

That’s some haul for a retired vicar and a production Westerly Discus.

Bob told me: ‘We bought Dodo’s Delight as the London Boat Show model in 1981 – slightly cheaper with a show boat deal – as a family thing to do. We knew nothing about how to choose a boat, but it had enough accommodation for our large family. It turned out to be an inspired choice. It remained a standard production GRP boat, except my son added a glassfibre cuddy instead of a sprayhood, before my round-the-world trip involving Cape Horn, and I later added a removable inner forestay.

‘Later still I made that permanent with a roller inner foresail on it for stormy weather. She looked after us very well, being strong and with a heavier layup than modern boats. And she has taken on her share of ice when I have made a mistake or two…’

A man climbing in Greenland

Bob climbs up a boulder field in Greenland. Credit: Bob Shepton Collection

To the extremes

Perhaps Bob’s most groundbreaking trip was a circumnavigation from 1993- 1995 via the Falklands, Antarctica (twice), Cape Horn, the Pacific Ocean, the Torres Strait and the Cape of Good Hope with a team of school leavers as crew.

Bob observed: ‘It can be rough round Cape Horn – but although we had gale after gale going east to west, there was nothing too extreme. The mast had fallen down in Antarctica before that. Under jury rig, we made it back to the Falklands across Drake Passage. Then a new mast was flown out on an RAF Trident and we made it back to Antarctica.’

When I asked him if he had any other traumatic experiences on his many travels in the trusty Discus, he replied: ‘We were knocked down 900NM off Cape Farewell, Greenland. A freak wave came from astern – the wind was gusting 60- 65 knots. The boat shot down the wave’s steep front, broached and fell onto its side. There was some minor damage to the topsides, but we made it to Nuuk for repairs.

‘The meanest Atlantic crossing of them all is Scotland to Greenland, or vice versa. You nearly always get clobbered by gales halfway across because of depressions spinning up from Newfoundland to Iceland and Faroes. For instance, on the “Wild Bunch” mountaineering expedition in 2010 we hove-to three times for heavy weather and once to repair the steering.’

Bob is one of the most amazing characters to have set sail on long-distance adventures in a near-standard GRP production yacht. Few will want to imitate his hair-raising mountaineering adventures, but many might be tempted to visit the beautiful and desolate Arctic wastes.

If you want Bob’s full story, you should buy his book Addicted to Adventure. You can also visit his website, www.bobshepton.co.uk.

When I asked what advice he would issue to would-be kindred spirits, he said: ‘Go for it, and forget about health and safety!’

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