a
ugus
t/september201
9cruisingwo
rld
.co
m42
Sailor Profile
W
e have been climbing up a
steep slope named Mount
Nobel on the Antarctic
Peninsula for at least four hours. Skip
Novak is attached to the climbing rope to
my rear, and the great mountaineer Alex
Lowe is leading the way. It is icy, and we
are wearing crampons on our boots that
have metal spikes that dig into the snow
and ice with every step. I am breathing
hard; Alex is coasting and Skip is smiling.
Two hours later we reach the summit.
It’s cold, windy and gray, but the sense
of accomplishment is deeply satisfying.
We are all happy. As I massage my tired
muscles and enjoy a Coca-Cola that
Alex surprised me with, we survey the
frozen landscape 2,000 feet below. Skip
is philosophical and remarks: “I enjoy
the extreme ends of the earth. For me,
I would like to fi nd a safe anchorage
and spend a full winter in Antarctica.
The boat would act as my base camp for
extensive exploratory mountaineering.
It would be great because you would be
totally self-suffi cient and really get to
know yourself.” (Sadly, Alex perished in
an avalanche on Shishapangma, one of
the highest mountains in the Himalayas,
three years later.)
Sailing has taken Skip a long way. He
is one of the premier modern-day adven-
turers. He competed in four Whitbread
Round the World races as either the nav-
igator or skipper. In his fi rst (1977-78), he
served as navigator aboard King’s Legend,
which fi nished a close second behind
Flyer. He was just 25 years old.
In addition to sailing as bowman on
some of the most successful Great Lakes
boats that took to salt water—including
Bay Bea, Condor (winner of the Southern
Ocean Racing Conference in 1972) and
Dora IV (where he learned celestial naviga-
tion on the 1972 trans-Atlantic to Spain)—
he was also a crewmember on Aura for
owner Wally Stenhouse when they won
the World Ocean Racing Championshipin 1974. These events gave him a gateway
to travel that would eventually take him to
the far ends of the earth.
Skip grew up in Chicago, sailing as
much as he could from the Chicago Yacht
Club at Belmont Harbor. He was wiry
and tough, and opted for individual sports
such as wrestling in high school. That
might explain his understated individu-
alism. He graduated from the University
of South Florida in Tampa in 1974, and
a year later, sailed to Europe, delivering
the German Admiral Cup yacht Pinta
from Bermuda to France. In addition to
yacht deliveries and general boat work,
he wrote sailing articles and became an
accomplished photographer, all in order
to pay his way in what was a peripatetic
lifestyle, well before professional oceanracing evolved. Skip was good with his
hands and understood all the mechanics
of how equipment worked on yachts.
Many owners sought out his services.
His stint on King’s Legend was his big
break into the international sailing cir-
cuit. The navigator during that era had to
rely on celestial navigation and piloting,
and the sextant and a timepiece were the
fundamental tools of the trade. He had a
big responsibly to not only keep track of
where the boat was, but at the same time,
try to win the race by taking advantage of
favorable weather patterns.
He told me: “For me, the Whitbread
was like a childhood dream. Suddenly,
I’m sailing to Cape Town, then through
the ice in the Southern Ocean. I was
enamored with these exotic port cities.Skip Novak’s seagoing adventures have taken him on quite a journey, from the
windy streets of Chicago to the gales of the Roaring Forties and Antarctica.SKIP NOVAK: High-Latitude ADVENTURER
COURTESYS
KI
P^
NOVAKA four-time Whitbread race navigator and skipper tackles new challenges while living and sailing in
the far reaches of the Southern Ocean.BY GARY JOBSON