Posted: Jun 08, 2005 11:28 am EDT
On November 24, 2004, Fedor started his round the world single-handed non-stop sail. He headed west to the Atlantic Ocean on a 85 ft Open maxi boat from Falmouth Bay (Cornwall, England). That's also where he arrived today, June 8, 2005 - close to 7 grueling months later.

Fedor Konyukhov went the classical W-E route; around Cape of Good Hope (Africa), Cape Lewin (Australia) and Cape Horn (South America), alone on a maxi-yacht normally operated by a crew of 10-12. Not somewhere in the Mediterranean either, but navigating a route also called “sailing around Antarctica” - as for the most part of the time the yacht, doubling the ice continent, sails in the South Ocean – in the “roaring forties” and “furious fifties”, in prevailing winds.

Standing at the steering wheel

Fedor intended to make it in 120 days, planning to spend one month for each ocean. But the trip would last twice the original plan and present a good share of trials to the maxi-yacht «Trading Network Alye Parusa» and its fifty-three-year-old skipper.

There were heavy gales in the outflow from the Bay of Biscay and then abeam Portugal, followed by the exhausting zone “Doldrums” as a forerunner of the Equator. In North Atlantics; the main hydraulic autopilot of the B&G brand broke down. The skipper had to stand at the steering wheel for the most part of the time only sometimes using a spare automatic pilot (Raymarine), which was meant for light, head winds.

Survival mode in the South Ocean

Indian Ocean presented a massive zone of low pressure. Within five days the wind raising ten-meter-high waves never lowered below 50 knots (90 km/hour). The South Ocean decided to test the skipper and his yacht seriously by intensifying gusts up to 65 knots (120 km/hour) and raising huge fifteen-meter-high waves. The hurricane was withholding the yacht for two more days!

The meteorologist Lee Bruce was sending alarming forecast with urgent requests to switch to survival mode. That meant that there was no sense to follow the route; the main thing was to set the maximally safe course regarding to hurricane force wind and gigantic waves, and to do the best to survive in that cataclysm of nature.

Seven day storm

Fedor had never seen such a storm transforming into a hurricane in his three previous circumnavigations. The waves blocked the light, the day turned into night. The yacht was sailing between two water mountains as in a well. The clouds were rushing so low above the yacht that they seemed to be hitting the mast. The ocean looked ominous and Fedor felt afraid for the yacht and for himself.

After the seven-day storm, the wind began to subside, but there were huge swell on the ocean. The steel diagonal shroud (D2) between the first and the second spreader had not withstood such bumps and broke. The skipper had no opportunity to load the mast and had to move slowly, with extreme caution, away from the “furious fifties” to the North and call at the Australian port Hobart on the Island of Tasmania.

Rounding Cape Horn in Austral winter

One week later, on March 6, the yacht left the hospitable Port of Hobart and, despite of the beginning Austral winter season in the Southern Hemisphere, headed for Cape Horn. Altogether, taking into account the approach to Tasmania, repairs and departure for “furious fifties”, Fedor Konyukhov lost more than 40 days.

One thousand miles away of Cape Horn, during winter in the South Hemisphere, the wind blew from the south, from Antarctica. The yacht was forcing its way to Cape Horn through ten-meter-high waves and struggling against the fifty-knot wind. The wind from Antarctica brought huge fields of drifting icebergs and the temperature dropped below zero.

Final damage

Fedor doubled Cape Horn on April 9, 2005. The day he crossed the Equator there was another serious breakage: it pulled out one of the forestays where the staysail was fixed. Once again, the solo circumnavigation project was endangered. Any troubles with rigging on a sailing yacht are very serious as they have an impact on the integrity and safety of the mast and, consequently, the ability to head for the planned direction.

Using everything available, Fedor Konyukhov began to repair the deck fastening of the staysail, weighing one hundred kilograms, sailing with the speed of 7-8 knots and swerving from side to side. It was not possible to retard the speed – a motionless yacht rocks heavier.

Visit to New York

Today, June 8 2005, Fedor made it. He sailed into the Falmouth Bay and accomplished his round-the-world voyage, after battling the hardest weather conditions of Southern Ocean and Cape Horn, alone in his Maxi yacht. With the great help of another hero of the voyage: american Meteorologist Lee Bruce.

Ahead, Fedor Konyukhov and the Trading Network Alye Parusa have several years of interesting oceanic record programs on the legendary maxi-yacht. During the voyages promoting Russia as a sailing power, the biggest Russian sports yacht will visit the largest ports: New-York, San-Francisco, Yokohama, Cape Town, Montevideo, Sydney.

Next adventures

In April-May 2006, Fedor Konyukhov plans to leave for Greenland. He is going to cross the island from east to the west, along the Polar Circle on a wooden iceboat (a trimaran on skis with sails). If successful, a more complicated and larger-scale project “Crossing Antarctica via South Pole” will follow. The goal is to, for the first time, cross the continent on a motorless vehicle using only the wind power; sailing through the three poles of Antarctica: the South Geographical Pole, the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility (a point equidistant from all coasts of Antarctica) and the Magnetic Pole.

From 2005 to 2008, Fedor Konyukhov plans to build a fifty-meter long sports and expeditionary yacht to carry out two solo round-the-world sailings: against the wind (from the east to the west) and down the wind (from the west to the east). After that, it is planned to use the mega-yacht as an expeditionary vessel.

Fedor Konyukhov and his team would like to thank all friends, supporters, suppliers and sponsors who helped Fedor make his dream - to sail on a maxi boat around the world – come true.

Fedor Konyukhov 53, gets the all around, all-star Explorers badge. Let's go through the tick list: An unsupported South Pole ski, supported North Pole crossing (three NP trips all together), crossed the Atlantic 12 times (once in a rowboat!), climbed Everest and the rest of the seven summits, four circumnavigations of the world in a sailboat (twice against the prevailing winds and once in a solo race around the world), traveled from Vladivostok to St Petersburg by bike, an Iditarod, and rode the Great Silk Path on a camel.

"I am searching for an explanation for the sense of life through my journeys." In spite of the records, to Fedor, it's all a spiritual journey, and fairness is a part of that. In the beginning of this sail, Fedor faced a tough choice. His Argos beacon stopped transmitting during the first night at sea - he was offered replacements to be delivered to his boat by ORS. According to the rules from the World Speed Sailing Records, collecting replacement beacons would jeopardize Fedor’s "without assistance" status. He declined, taking a security risk in the Southern ocean. (If something happened, the home team would have had to track the boat (life raft) for weeks with an Argos).

Fedor Konyukhov was born December 12, 1951, into a family of fishermen in Priazovye, on the Azov Sea. He is a distance sailing captain and a yacht captain who has covered more than 150,000 nautical miles solo by sail. He is also an honorable resident of the city of Nakhodka (Primorsk Region, Russia), the city of Terni (Italy), and the village of Bergin (Kalmykia, Russia).

Fedor is also an artist and paints his expeditions. In 1983 he was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR (the youngest artist at the time). He has created 2,000 autolithographs, lithographs, etchings and pictures, many from his expeditions. Some of them can be purchased on his website.

Fedor is the laureate of the Gold Medal of the Russian Arts Academy, and Honorary Academician of the Russian Arts Academy. He participated in a number of Russian and international exhibitions. In 2001 Fedor went on a six-month internship to the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris on recommendation from the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Z.K. Tseriteli.

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