Let’s just start by saying that there are nut jobs and then there are blithering idiots. From time to time in my sailing life, I have been both so it’s not for me to criticize. It makes life more interesting, but this really is nuts, or maybe I’m just plain wrong. Turns out I was just plain right.
A British sailor, Andrew Bedwell, left St John’s harbor in Newfoundland aboard his self-built 100cm boat named Big C V. For my American friends 100 centimeters is just over three feet. Let me interject that Mr Bedwell is well over 6-feet tall. He was heading for England. Now I know that the air fares have gone up since the shutting of the Strait of Hormuz, but seriously there has to be an easier way to get to England, but nonetheless, after years of planning Mr. Bedwell set off with the best of intentions.
I kind of liked his boat, the Big C V, in fact it should be called the big CV2, because his last boat sank, but this one was well thought out, except for the legroom issue and he took off to cheers and a decent tail wind that allowed him to set up a nice wing-and-wing situation to get him rolling. It was just 9:30 in the morning Canadian time and things started off pretty good. He actually managed to hit a top speed of 3.7 knots.
His first evening at sea he reported that all was going well, but the Canadian Coast Guard had already been alerted and knew that a low pressure system was approaching and with a precipitous drop in pressure comes some big breeze and waves so they kept him on radar and sure enough the wind picked up.
Before we get to the end of this story let me tell you that Big C V2 was designed by Bedwell himself and naval architect Jérôme Delaunay. The boat was (note the past tense) built from aluminum with an encapsulated 115kg lead keel and had a watertight 10mm polycarbonate domed hatch, you know like those that the French were famous for where you could peer out through to check the condition without getting wet.
They engineered an aluminum A-frame to support a central furling system for twin Dacron sails. Just to keep thing running smoothly the boat was powered by solar panels and AGM and lithium batteries. No mention of what type of head was onboard but I guess that you would have to be a contortionist to use it.
Well long story short, Bedwell made it two days into his voyage before calling in the Coast Guard. He had some issues with the boat and was attempting to return to Canada but things started to go very wrong and the Coast Guard rescued him, but sadly his boat was abandoned and will be shipping hazard until it finally sinks. Bedwell has stated categorically that this would be his last attempt.
The Guinness Book of Records states that the holder for the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic is Hugo Vihlen. In 1993, the American sailor crossed from Newfoundland to Falmouth, Cornwall, in 106 days aboard 1.62m or 5ft 3in boat name Father’s Day. – Brian Hancock.
