BUILT FOR BATTLE

IS THE NEW PELAGIC 77 THE ULTIMATE EXPEDITION YACHT? ELAINE BUNTING SAILED WITH SKIP NOVAK TO FIND OUT

- ELAINE BUNTING

Sailing on the Solent, this 77ft colossus makes every other yacht looks flimsy and destructible. The designer, Tony Castro, even calls his creation ‘a beast’. As the big schooner heels to the breeze he chuckles gleefully, clawing the air with his fingers like a creature on the rampage. This is a boat designed for the wilds.

Named after the continent’s highest mountain, Vinson of Antartica has been built to meet the world’s harshest conditions. It has everything required for voyages of six weeks or longer to the most remote places, where there are no repair facilities and no medical help.

It was built for Chilean businessman and adventurer Nicolas Ibañez to use for science, filmmaking and sail training voyages, and designed in a collaboration between Tony Castro and sailor explorer Skip Novak.

Although new, it is a boat with a history. It inherits the philosophy and experience Skip has gained from 33 seasons sailing and mountaineering in the Antarctic and South Georgia on his own expedition yachts, the 54ft Pelagic and the Castro-designed 74ft Pelagic Australis (recently sold to Greenpeace, see page 22).

The result is this first of a new marque, the Pelagic 77. It is sized to fit into the MGN 280 code for small commercial vessels of up to 24m, yet be able to comfortably carry 10 guests and four crew (three sailing crew and an expedition leader).

For Skip, a no-nonsense kinda guy, a proper expedition boat is a ‘taxi to the snowline’, not a yacht in the conventional sense. It is a workboat, pure and simple. Maintenance must be as easy as possible. Visible wear and tear that is purely cosmetic is irrelevant.