What sounds like a joke is bitterly serious for the budding competitors of this suicide mission. From the Bahamas it should go round along the barefoot route. We spoke to the organizers and participants and delved into the history of micro-yachting. Read in the new YACHT what unbelievable stories came out of it.
We don't want to reveal everything … But would you have thought that for more than 120 years blue water trips have been made in small boats, which by no means all consist of lifeboat trips by shipwrecked people?
In order to be able to grasp the abundance of curious "pleasure trips", we have tried to limit ourselves to the smallest vehicles, boats under four meters hull length.
Need a foretaste of the caliber of these stories? Let's take the dangerous route across the North Atlantic, in a west-east direction. It was in the year 1888 (!), Modern leisure adventurism had not even been invented, when the American captain William A. Andrews announced that he wanted to tackle the route in his only 3.89 meter long Dory "Dark Secret". However, loneliness quickly troubles the daring sportsman and he gives up the company.
The solution seems to have been found a few years later - Andrews tries again with his wife. But that too goes wrong. This time, however, as the New York Times headlined at the time, the Yankee fails because of his wife's seasickness. A weirdo who was only out for the public? No, Andrews succeeded in the attempt in 1892 with the "Sapolio", which was just over four meters long.
Just one of countless stories. Adventures that have a lot to do with chasing records, self-fulfillment and crises in midlife, but also with experimental boat building and real love for the sea.