March 27, 2019
Another "eight"
Yesterday in the French Les Sables d’Olon – which is called the world capital of round-the-world sailing races – they launched the Ant Arctic Lab's yacht class Open60.
On this amazing yacht (length 18.28 m, width 5.82 m), the famous Austrian yachtsman, 57-year-old Norbert Sedlacek, intends this summer to go on a single non-stop journey of 34,000 nautical miles in length.
He plans to depart from Les Sables d’Olon on July 21 (on the website of Sedlacek, the countdown to the start has already begun, and to the nearest seconds!). The route is as follows: first – to the American continent, then you have to go through the Canadian Northwest Passage from east to west, descend along the west coast of the USA to Cape Horn, loop around Antarctica, go around the terrible Horn again, and then return to the Atlantic back to france. It will be something like a giant "eight".
A similar “G-8” – only from the start and finish in San Francisco – is being written out by the American Randall Reeves, whose odyssey we told just a few days ago. Are such ultra-long journeys coming into fashion?
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Shortly about Norbert Sedlachek. The former Viennese driver in his own time, without the support of some powerful sponsors, made a non-stop solo voyage around Antarctica, then took part in the 2004 Vendee Globe race (then he had to go the distance), and in 2008 successfully completed this race ( 11th place out of 30 participants). After that he got carried away with a new project – the very “eight”.
At the beginning of this material we called Sedlacek's yacht amazing, and this is true. It was invented by Herr Norbert and his wife Marion Koch, and built at the shipyard Innovation Yachts. The body of Open60AAL consists of environmentally friendly and recyclable materials – basalt fiber, balsa and biocompatible epoxy resin. Among other things, under the keel of the yacht there is a certain special “chipper”, which is designed to protect large marine mammals in case of possible collisions.
Note that as a result of all these innovations, Open60AAL is about two tons heavier than the "ordinary" yachts of this class of the last generation.
It is worth noting that for the Sedlachek family this is not the first experience of using basalto composites. A start was made in 2013, when Norbert's son, Harald, crossed the Atlantic twice in 133 days on a 5-meter yacht Open 16 Fipofix of basalt fiber.
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On a long journey Sedlacek was going to go July 30 last year. He even set off, but … Only two days later he announced that he was turning back to Le Sables d’Alonn. Because, according to him, it became clear that much on the ship needs to be optimized – and only then to start.
The optimization process took more than five months, and finally, yesterday, Open60AAL, as you already know, was launched.
Let us hope that the new journey of the “steadfast” yacht will last longer than the first time. And, of course, we will follow him.
218 March 27, 2019 # 8873
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