The Northwest Passage

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The Northwest Passage

In the history of maritime exploration no other part of the world has been more difficult to conquer. To date there have been only nine successful passages by superyachts, and five of these were made on yachts designed by Vripack. In fact, Vripack designed the first superyacht to ever make the crossing. Turmoil pulled it off in 2001, becoming the 87th vessel to successfully navigate the legendary Northwest Passage since records began.

TAKING ON THE GREATEST MARITIME CHALLENGE KNOWN TO MAN

The ultimate frontier, the leading yacht designers

Located 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle and less than 1,200 miles from the North Pole, the Northwest Passage is the greatest maritime challenge known to man. The route was discovered around 1845 by Sir John Franklin, an English Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer, but neither he nor anyone else from his 129-man crew made it home.

NORWEGIAN EXPLORER ADMUNDSEN

Several failed attempts followed, until Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, finally conquered it in 1905. It had taken Amundsen and his crew all of two years, including two harsh winters in a harbour at King William Island. He discovered a series of deep channels through Canada’s Arctic Archipelago. Starting north of Baffin Island and continuing all the way to the Beaufort Sea, just above Alaska. It’s a route that extended about 900 miles from east to west. The Northwest Passage was the only alternative to the long journey around Cape Horn for passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

THOUSANDS OF ICEBERGS

Most ships enter the Passage from the Pacific, were the polar ice cap presses down on Alaska’s shallow north coast for much of the year, funneling masses of ice into the Bering Strait, the narrow sea passage between Alaska and Siberia. Following one of the seven routes to the Atlantic exit takes sailors on a hazardous journey that involves the careful negotiation of tens of thousands of giant icebergs between Greenland and Baffin Island, some rising 300 feet or more above sea level, all on their slow, southward drift.

WILDLIFE

This inhospitable and undisturbed part of the world is home to an astonishing array of wildlife, which, other than scientific grounds, is the prime argument for attempting the journey. One becomes so captivated by the sight of sharp-clawed, creamy-white polar bears, languidly moving whale pods and large herds of walruses, and so regular are the sightings, that you almost forget the chunks of ice drifting within striking distance of the yacht.

EXPERIENCED YACHTING PROFESSIONALS

Given that the Passage is usually frozen solid and impassable for much of the year, the Captains and crew that have managed to traverse it successfully are among a highly select group of yachting professionals, and have, as a result, earned the respect of their peers, not to mention a fair bit of fame. So rare are these crossings, and so changeable the conditions, that the knowledge required for successful passage isn’t widely available, even in this era of the internet. Consequently, Vripack maintains a detailed record of their vast experience in designing yachts capable of meeting this challenge.

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‘I could quite happily do the Northwest Passage over and over again.’

ANIL THADANI, OWNER OF LATITUDE