Offshore trimaran to transit Northeast Passage

by Elaine Bunting, Yachting World
What’s the ideal yacht for attempting to set a record transiting the Northeast Passage?

You might think a steel yacht, or aluminum perhaps, something that resists crushing by ice, a sturdy craft equipped sensibly, if not beautifully, with a pilothouse or other shelter on deck.

You mightn’t think: the best yacht would be a round the world racing trimaran.

But Chinese sailor Guo Chuan did. He has just bought has bought Francis Joyon’s 97ft trimaran IDEC. Surprisingly, he didn’t buy it to better Joyon’s lone round the world record – or at least not for now – but to set a record, the first officially recognised speed record, for going through the Northeast Passage.

Guo Chuan, former Volvo Ocean Race crew and the first from his country to sail solo round the world, took over the Nigel Irens-designed trimaran in La Trinité sur Mer last month and will train with Joyon throughout April before renaming the yacht Qingdao.

The project follows nearly two years’ research on the feasibility of attempting the Northeast Passage from Murmansk to Providenya (along Russia’s northern coast). – Read on