High Latitude Adventure

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Vincenzo

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Please excuse my ignorance, however when a boat is assessed in Yachting Monthly, in regards to High Latitude Adventure. What would make this good and bad that is different to offshore passage making, apart from been warm !
 
I would guess that it means a boat that is designed and built to be capable of coping with the extreme conditions encountered in high latitude sailing. So protected helm/cockpit, robust underwater profile, hull capable of taking some knocks from chunks of ice, sufficient tankage and equipment to be self sufficient for months at a time. Not the kind of thing you find in your average charter-fodder yacht.
Not that you need a specialist expedition yacht, though- Bob Shepton has accomplished some incredible voyages in his Westerly Discus.
 
Vincenzo said:
Please excuse my ignorance, however when a boat is assessed in Yachting Monthly, in regards to High Latitude Adventure. What would make this good and bad that is different to offshore passage making, apart from been warm !
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Michel Joubert the late French architect defined it very easily: can it sail in ice strewn waters?

Hence Strongall.
 
Vincenzo said:
Please excuse my ignorance, however when a boat is assessed in Yachting Monthly, in regards to High Latitude Adventure. What would make this good and bad that is different to offshore passage making, apart from been warm !
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Very few production boats of the type that are reviewed in YM are specifically built for high latitude work. However as Kelpie says there are some features that custom built boats for that use tend to feature, or are seen as desirable.

The YM score would indicate the boat has some of those features or the potential to be adapted. So you might find higher scores for boats with wheelhouses or shelters, well protected cockpits, metal construction for hulls etc. So a Regina 38 would have a higher score than a Beneteau Sense of similar size.

Having said that this month's High Latitude adventure features a cruise amongst the ice in an Oyster 75.
 
Thanks for the replies it was as I thought just wanted to clarify with you guys, having been to both Poles in previous employment was interested in what if any design features were added or constructed with to make a good boat for those climes my obvious one was a good heater.
 
Yes,

I need to preface this by mentioning prior to Australia I worked in HK (so decades of warm water sailing) - we were in Patagonia in 2017 and it was quite an eye opener to see chimneys as standard equipment (presumably all with stoves down below - so not simply ventilation) on yachts, including one registered in Malta. Other features included huge banks (mostly reels) of shore lines and twin bow rollers (even on small yachts, in the 30'/40' range). Notably shore line are effectively used in every anchorage. Strangely(?) NG anchor were not that common.

I have never understood 'high latitude' to be restricted to waters containing ice - unless of course Patagonia is excluded from 'high latitude' - in which case Frank's knowledge might not be relevant (and I think his knowledge would be relevant).

Jonathan
 
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I'm reminded of Mark Fishwick's 'West Country Cruising' and his quoting an old Newlyn fisherman "West of The Lizard's no place for a small boat, come the end of September," and that some of the worst storms in the Celtic Sea have occurred in August.

I'm of the opinion also that "Anywhere north of Oban's no place for a small boat, come the end of September..."

Good people and their boats should be tucked up, safe and warm, preparing for Christmas by the fireside.

Any guesses where Susie Goodall, Mark Slats and Jean-Luc VDH will likely be spending Christmas Day?
 
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Vincenzo said:
Please excuse my ignorance, however when a boat is assessed in Yachting Monthly, in regards to High Latitude Adventure. What would make this good and bad that is different to offshore passage making, apart from been warm !
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This is details of a friend of mine who has done some High Latitude sailing.

https://www.sail-world.com/Australi...th-African-sailor/-103713?source=google.co.za

https://www.sailblogs.com/member/imvubu/contents/1

https://showme.co.za/durban/interactive/ralf-dominicks-talk-at-rnyc/
 
Neeves said:
Yes,

I need to preface this by mentioning prior to Australia I worked in HK (so decades of warm water sailing) - we were in Patagonia in 2017 and it was quite an eye opener to see chimneys as standard equipment (presumably all with stoves down below - so not simply ventilation) on yachts, including one registered in Malta. Other features included huge banks (mostly reels) of shore lines and twin bow rollers (even on small yachts, in the 30'/40' range). Notably shore line are effectively used in every anchorage. Strangely(?) NG anchor were not that common.

I have never understood 'high latitude' to be restricted to waters containing ice - unless of course Patagonia is excluded from 'high latitude' - in which case Frank's knowledge might not be relevant (and I think his knowledge would be relevant).

Jonathan
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Well, EXCEPT in Western Europe, most waters north of 50 degrees N or south of 50 degrees S will be prone to ice. IF you want to consider how weird our British Climate is, have a look at the climate of most places at the same latitude - glaciers and sea ice in winter are usual, and most places at Norwegian latitudes are pretty much uninhabitable! Britain and Norway are amazingly warm for their latitude.

This map, showing permanently frozen ground, indicates just how peculiar our British Climate is: https://ipa.arcticportal.org/products/gtn-p/ipa-permafrost-map. Almost everywhere at our latitude is permanently frozen!

PS, there isn't a definition of "High Latitude", but I'd use 50 degrees N or S as a good rule of thumb. The Arctic and Antarctic are usually considered to be the areas poleward of the 60 degrees line - though a bit of Greenland (which is definitely Arctic!) pokes south of 60 N.
 
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AntarcticPilot said:
......how weird our British Climate is...

PS...... I'd use 50 degrees N or S as a good rule of thumb. The Arctic and Antarctic are usually considered to be the areas poleward of the 60 degrees line
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Almost all the UK is north of the 50°N Parallel of Latitude - except for a couple of miles of The Lizard peninsula.
Almost all of the Shetland Isles are north of 60°N Parallel of Latitude - except for a couple of miles at the bottom of Main Island.

Perhaps that's why some of the Cornish are so frosty! And, by rights there should be pack ice and polar bears around Lerwick - and some years there probably are!
 
This is why the UK and north Europe is warmer than it should be

gulf-stream1.jpg
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Well, EXCEPT in Western Europe, most waters north of 50 degrees N or south of 50 degrees S will be prone to ice. IF you want to consider how weird our British Climate is, have a look at the climate of most places at the same latitude - glaciers and sea ice in winter are usual, and most places at Norwegian latitudes are pretty much uninhabitable! Britain and Norway are amazingly warm for their latitude.

This map, showing permanently frozen ground, indicates just how peculiar our British Climate is: https://ipa.arcticportal.org/products/gtn-p/ipa-permafrost-map. Almost everywhere at our latitude is permanently frozen!

PS, there isn't a definition of "High Latitude", but I'd use 50 degrees N or S as a good rule of thumb. The Arctic and Antarctic are usually considered to be the areas poleward of the 60 degrees line - though a bit of Greenland (which is definitely Arctic!) pokes south of 60 N.
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It always amazes me how few people actually know this.
I sailed to Haifax last year and most people with whom I talked about it, needed to be shown a map before they believed it was more southerly than the North Spanish coast. People’s idea of Canada (at least here in Europe) is somewhere up North where it is cold and dark
 
westhinder said:
It always amazes me how few people actually know this.
I sailed to Haifax last year and most people with whom I talked about it, needed to be shown a map before they believed it was more southerly than the North Spanish coast. People’s idea of Canada (at least here in Europe) is somewhere up North where it is cold and dark
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Yes, and South Georgia (which most people would accept as being in high latitudes) is actually at about the same latitude south as Manchester is north! We can argue about whether Manchester would benefit from glaciation, but South Georgia a) is heavily glaciated and b) is in the track of icebergs originating in Antarctica. It's also only just north of the Antarctic pack ice in winter.
 
zoidberg said:
Almost all the UK is north of the 50°N Parallel of Latitude - except for a couple of miles of The Lizard peninsula.
Almost all of the Shetland Isles are north of 60°N Parallel of Latitude - except for a couple of miles at the bottom of Main Island.

Perhaps that's why some of the Cornish are so frosty! And, by rights there should be pack ice and polar bears around Lerwick - and some years there probably are!
Click to expand...

And when we published a map of the Arctic, the Shetland Islands were on it. Somehow, we missed Cornwall off!
 
I assume that the northern waters more prone to ice - would be in the winter, when most sane folk will have tied their 'expedition yachts' up - and gone south. Though I did note the NW Passage closed a bit early this year, end Aug/early Sept? - and the Canadian Coastguard, advised, demanded retreat.

Whether it is icy, or not - yachts visiting Patagonia, in the absence of ice - will will benefit from heating :) and stout ground tackle.

Jonathan
 
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