April 25, 2019
Across the Atlantic on a ship length … 106 cm
American Matt Kent wants to set the record for crossing the Atlantic on a minimum-sized sailing ship. He plans to start in the fall of 2020 with the Canary Islands.
In fact, we have already written about the ship to which Kent gave the proud name Undaunted (in translation – “Fearless” or “Fearless”). Two years ago. Since then, the design has not changed. So let's repeat a few paragraphs from the one that has already been published long ago:
The length of the "Fearless" is only 106 cm, and the boat looks more like a washing machine worn on the head of a yachtsman. At the same time, it should be noted, the survivability of the “sailboat” promises to be quite good: aluminum six millimeters thick went to the underwater part, four millimeters to the surface part.
The stability of the “washer” is given by lead ballast weighing 200 kg, hanging on a one and a half meter (!) Fin finalshile. The displacement of the unusual apparatus is 800 kg. The vessel is equipped with a mast (it is also a ventilation pipe) carrying three square meters of sails. On board there is a tank for 150 liters of water, two desalination plants, AIS, GPS, EPIRB, solar panels and a manual generator.
Matt Kent (who is not really crazy at all, but a professional sailor) is counting on an average speed of 2.5 knots and plans to walk 4,000 miles to Florida in about three months … Well, it’s impossible not to say this: due to the huge risk for the traveler accounting of such "records" is not maintained. Even the "Guinness Book of Records" refused to record such achievements. "
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Two years ago we published a note about Kent because just then, in April 2017, he planned to start from one of the Canary Islands – Homer. And started. But in less than a day the trip had to be interrupted. Here is what Kent himself wrote about the reasons for the failure:
“Part of the buoyancy system, which was mounted on the rudder's feathers, began to beat excessively against the side in a short wave. Buck jumped so often and so hard that the boat could not go forward. Everything went to the point that the forging of the feather, to which the tank was attached, would break … ”
In December of the same 2017, Matt was going to start again. But at the last moment, the Canary Islands Customs Service gave him new conditions – to pay an insurance policy worth 300,000 euros and present a letter from the US Coast Guard with permission for a transatlantic journey.
Kent did not show any policy or letter – and the whole project was stalled.
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And now the matter has apparently moved from a dead center: in any case, new start dates have been announced. As already mentioned, Undaunted should hit the road in the fall of 2020. Place of the intended finish – Florida, USA.
P.S. The first of all who tried to set the record for crossing the Atlantic on a minimum-sized sailing ship was the American Alfred Johnson in 1986. On June 25 of that year, he started in Massachusetts in an open (!) 20-foot boat, and finished on August 12 in Wales.
When asked why he decided to embark on such a perilous journey, Johnson, as they say, always answered the same:
“Yes, because I was an absolute idiot, that's all!”
186 April 25, 2019 # 8966
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