Pioneer
Breaking the Ice
Few things in life can prepare you for your first ever sighting of a polar bear in the wild. But when it happens within three hours of arriving in the Canadian Arctic archipelago sitting on board your 46m explorer vessel watching an adult bear languish salubriously on a passing iceberg, it’s pretty hard to beat. For the owners and crew of Vripack-designed Pioneer, it remains unrivaled.
Northwest Passage Circumnavigation
Pioneer at her best sailing the Northwest Passage
She is a private expedition yacht with an incredible 11,000-mile range and robust cruising capabilities. This Explorer yacht was the first yacht to circumnavigate North America and has tackled many high latitude destinations. From Greenland to Alaska, and British Columbia to the Northwest Passage. Her shared ownership today between two owners and their families means the boat never stands still.
“The place I liked the most was Greenland just because of how beautiful it is and there’s some really interesting human culture there,” says Pioneer’s owner. “However the place where I felt the boat was at its best, where I felt without Pioneer that I would never get to see in this way, was the Northwest Passage. It’s the most remote place that I’ve been on the boat, reaching 75 degrees North latitude.”
At the helm, Captains Gareth Nicholls and Nick Cutler worked on a rotational basis to support Pioneer’s shared itineraries. Being equipped with a large RIB called Lookout and a 10m sports fisherman called Scout that tows behind Pioneer proved to be invaluable when trying to access some of the more remote regions and wildlife, says Captain Gareth: “Going out for two hours looking for polar bears in one of our open tenders would have become tedious pretty quickly. The sports fisherman had the winter covers on, so it’s enclosed and heated. It means you can spend all day looking for wildlife and that was a game-changer for us. It meant we saw everything.”
For the owner, whose previous trips to the Arctic had been camping in the North Slope of Alaska’s Brooks Range in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the opportunity to experience the wildlife and landscapes of the high latitudes by boat added another captivating dimension. “Alaska looks very different to Greenland, and they both look incredibly different to the high Arctic in Canada. It’s a different landscape with different wildlife. There’s a certain type of light and energy you get during summertime in the high latitudes. It’s fantastic.”
“Devon Island was amazing,” says the owner. “We only saw a small part of it, but we pulled into this bay on the Southern side and found a blessing of 30 narwhals that we followed over the course of two days. And there’s the ice, as well, of course. The calving glaciers and groaning sea ice are both fascinating and beautiful, not to mention nerve-wracking for the captains!”
WEAVING THROUGH ICEBERGS
“There’s nothing quite like being in the jacuzzi while cruising past a huge mountain of an iceberg,” says Captain Gareth, who alongside the owners regards Pioneer to be an “outdoors boat”. Bought in 2015 with the Northwest Passage in mind, Pioneer ticks all the boxes for a family explorer.
“We never sit inside other than on the bridge,” says the owner. “The bridge is a great place for viewing with really comfortable seating for us to be with the captain. And we always eat outdoors. In the high latitudes, the boat was solid, we had no technical issues, and it’s just a fantastic platform.”