Cruising World – August 2019

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nnovation Yachts is testing next-

generation, environmentally sustain-

able technologies while attempting a

tough new circumnavigation record.

When most sailors think of volcanoes,

their imaginations spin to cruising the

Ring of Fire. Not so for skipper Norbert

Sedlacek. Instead, Sedlacek and the team

at Innovation Yachts have developed a

way to utilize volcanic fi ber, fast-growing

balsa wood, and a high-end, purportedly

benign epoxy to create a 60-foot high-per-

formance yacht. This boat, which was

launched in May 2018, has been dubbed

the Open 60 AAL. It will be used to test

new, environmentally sustainable boat-

building materials and technologies, and

Sedlacek will also use the revolutionary

boat to attempt a world record for a new,

34,000-plus-mile singlehanded circumnav-

igation that will negotiate all the oceans

and Arctic and Antarctic waters. The proj-

ect, known as the “Ant Arctic Lab,” was

to commence on July 21, 2019, from Les

Sables-d’Olonne, France, and is expected

to take seven months.

After leaving France, Sedlacek planned

to point his bows toward southwest

Greenland and the Northwest Passage’s

eastern entrance. Once Sedlacek reaches

the North Pacifi c, he’ll sail a southerly

route along the west coast of North and

South America to Tierra del Fuego, where

he will round Cape Horn for the fi rst time

before circumnavigating Antarctica. Once

complete, Sedlacek will round Cape Horn

a second time before then pressing north

to complete his circumnavigation.

While this expedition will be a

great sailing challenge for Sedlacek and

Innovation Yachts, the team’s big-picture

goals are to circumnavigate in a green

and sustainable manner, and to test—and

prove—the physical limits of building ma-

terials such as volcanic fi ber, which is made

from ground and mixed volcanic rocks

and rendered into recyclable fi bers. One

of the project’s stated goals is to prove the

hull material’s ability to tackle the harshest

conditions, including drifting ice.

The technologies and materials used

aboard the Open 60 AAL might be

bleeding-edge new, but Sedlacek is no

stranger to high latitudes. The Austrian

completed his fi rst circumnavigation

in 1998 aboard a homebuilt 26 -footer,

followed by an 11th-place fi nish in the

2008-09 Vendee Globe. Additionally, in

2014, Sedlacek’s son, Harald, sailed the

16 -foot Fipofi x yacht, which is also built by

Innovation Yachts out of similar recyclable

materials, from Les Sables-d’Olonne,

France, to Palm Beach, Florida, as a proof-

of-concept expedition.

You can follow Sedlacek’s historic

journey at ant-arctic-lab.com.

—David Schmidt

GREEN

MEANS GO!

Built with volcanic fi ber, the Open

60 AAL is a test bed for sustainable

boatbuilding materials.