{"id":162699,"date":"2026-04-30T06:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=162699"},"modified":"2026-04-30T09:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:55:38","slug":"long-read-a-polar-vortex-the-thickest-ice-seen-in-decades-on-the-navesink-a-100000-tiffany-and-co-trophy-and-longest-deferred-grudge-match-in-sports-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/special-reports\/long-read-a-polar-vortex-the-thickest-ice-seen-in-decades-on-the-navesink-a-100000-tiffany-and-co-trophy-and-longest-deferred-grudge-match-in-sports-history-162699","title":{"rendered":"Long read: A polar vortex, the thickest ice seen in decades on The Navesink, a $100,000 Tiffany and Co. trophy, and the ‘longest-deferred grudge match in sports history’"},"content":"Often the smallest boats to cross oceans look much like a child's crayon picture of a little boat on a big sea, certainly Yann Quenet\u2019s Baluchon <\/em>does. Baluchon<\/em> is only 13ft 1in (4m long), with one simple sail and a stubby, blunt-nosed hull painted cherry red and ice cream white.\r\n\r\nBaluchon<\/em> is no toy, though. When Quenet sailed it back to Brittany in August, he had fulfilled his childhood ambition of circumnavigating in a tiny boat. Its simple appearance is emblematic of his philosophy. \u201cI have loved little boats since I was a child,\u201d he says, \u201cand I am still a child at heart. Sailing round the world on a little boat is something I have dreamed about since I was a teenager.\u201d\r\n\r\nQuenet, now 51, has dedicated much of his adult life to designing, building and sailing microyachts. Whereas most of us progress in incrementally larger boats, Quenet\u2019s craft have always been minuscule. He has created numerous self-build designs for plywood construction from a 9m gaffer to a 5m trimaran and a 6.5m gaff yawl (see them at boat-et-koad.com<\/a>).\r\n\r\nIn 2015, Quenet attempted to cross the Atlantic<\/a> in a 14ft 1in (4.3m) plywood scow, but it capsized in a storm off the coast of Spain and he was rescued by a ship. After that experience he resolved to come up with a bulletproof self-righting microyacht suitable for ocean sailing, and went back to the drawing board.\r\n\r\nHis solution was a pram-style design that could be built in plywood in under 4,000 hours and would cost no more than \u20ac4,000. Baluchon<\/em> is the result, a tiny boat to be sailed by one person for up to six weeks at a time and resilient enough to take anything the oceans throw at it.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141582\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Yann Quenet\u2019s 4m long Baluchon<\/em>[\/caption]\r\n

Smallest boats getting smaller<\/h2>\r\nThe history of sailing across oceans in the smallest boats is a surprisingly long one. With a few exceptions (of which more later), it is not about breaking records. This is about stripping away everything complex and extraneous \u2013 including other people.\r\n\r\nOne of the most famous small boat voyages was nearly 70 years ago when Patrick Elam and Colin Mudie made several ocean passages in Sopranino<\/em>, which was only 17ft 9in (5.4m) on the waterline. Elam observed: \u201cI would not pretend that Sopranino<\/em> is the optimum size. At sea she is near perfect, but could with advantage be a few inches longer to give a slightly bigger cockpit and a separate stowage for wet oilskins below. In harbour, she is too small (for comfort) and too delicate and vulnerable.\u201d\r\n\r\nAlso in the 1950s, John Guzzwell consulted Jack Giles about the smallest boat practical to sail around the world and Giles drew the 20ft 6in (6.2m) Trekka<\/em>, which Guzzwell built and circumnavigated in twice. Smaller still was Shane Acton\u2019s 18ft 4in (5.5m) Shrimpy<\/em>, a Robert Tucker design which he sailed round the world in 1972 despite having very little sailing experience when he left.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141587\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Tom McNally planned to retake his small-boat Atlantic crossing record in Big C. Photo: Ajax News[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 1987, Serge Testa beat that by sailing round the world in his self-designed 11ft 10in (3.6m) aluminium sloop, Acrohc Australis<\/em>. He broke the record for the smallest yacht to be sailed round the world, one that is still standing 35 years later.\r\n\r\nThis feat, together with Acton\u2019s well-publicised voyages in the 1970s, ignited a lasting interest in small boat or microyacht voyages. Money is usually a factor in the choice of such small craft but overlaid by a streak of determined romanticism, the almost spiritual challenge of sailing a nutshell craft across a vast ocean.\r\n\r\nYann Quenet is not alone in creating self-build plans for aspiring micro-voyagers. New Zealander John Welsford also specialises in small boats such as the 18ft (5.5m) junk-rigged Swaggie<\/em> \u2013 \u2018a mighty, miniature long range cruiser\u2019 \u2013 and a sturdy oceangoing 21ft (6.5m) gaff cutter, Sundowner<\/em> (see jwboatdesigns.co.nz<\/a>).\r\n\r\nAs with Quenet\u2019s little boats, Welsford\u2019s designs are for plywood construction. The plans, he says, are detailed for \u201creal beginners with very basic woodworking skills and a good attitude\u2026 the other skills will come as the project progresses.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn his thinking, people can experience a deep sense of escape even through the process of building such a boat. \u201cI anticipate a lot of builders will be people who find themselves trapped in a soulless desk job which condemns them to commuting for hours in heavy traffic, living in a thin-walled and crowded apartment and dreaming with longing of the freedom of the seas, golden sands and warm breezes.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141588\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" John Guzzwell\u2019s Trekka. Photo: Historic Images\/Alamy[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPerhaps unsurprisingly the small boat community attracts a mixture of adventurers, inventors, idealists and eccentrics. One of the less successful was the self-styled \u2018Admiral Dinghy\u2019, a former Hollywood B-movie star and retired dance teacher from the US whose longtime aim was to sail round the world in a 9ft 11in (3m) boat. He had scant ocean sailing experience and no money. He\u2019d been building and tinkering with his tiny junk-rigged boat since 1975 and began preparing for a circumnavigation in earnest in 2009. But he had problems with his boat, never went offshore and has since vanished from the radar.\r\n

A small boat living legend<\/h2>\r\nA mixture of na\u00efve courage and inexperience appears characteristic of many of the smallest boat sailors. It\u2019s easy to imagine a dichotomy at the heart of it: many of the ideas could be perilous in hands of someone inexperienced, yet how many seasoned sailors would contemplate voyaging in a tiny craft?\r\n\r\nSomeone who has, numerous times, is Sven Yrvind. A Swedish sailor and boatbuilder, now aged 83, he has been designing and sailing tiny yachts for more than 60 years. He built his first tiny open boat in 1962, and decades of experimentation and voyaging followed.\r\n\r\nIn 1969, he built a 15ft 7in (4.2m) boat and sailed to Ireland. In 1971, he built his first Bris<\/em> (or Breeze) in his mother\u2019s basement, its size dictated by the dimensions of the cellar and the door it would have to be taken out through. He sailed this 19ft 8in (6m) cold moulded epoxy double-ender across the Atlantic seven times in four years and went as far as Argentina and Tristan da Cunha. (I highly recommend reading his fascinating and entertaining account at yrvind.com\/my-life-texts<\/a>).\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141580\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Yann Quenet completed a three-year world tour on his 4m Baluchon. Photo: Damien Meyer\/AFP\/Getty[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn his next boat, the 15ft 9in (5.9m) Bris II<\/em>, he went much further, sailing south to the Falkland Islands in 1980, before rounding Cape Horn and going north to Chile.\r\n\r\nOver the decades, Yrvind (his birth surname was Lundin but he changed it to the Swedish term for a turbulent wind) has continually experimented with tiny yachts. In 1986, he built a 15ft 8in (5.76m) double-ender and sailed it to Newfoundland. In his most recent boat, Exlex<\/em> (Outlaw), he sailed to the Azores in 2018, and in 2020 from Norway to the Azores and Madeira, returning to Ireland, a voyage of 150 days.\r\n\r\nRight now, he is working on Exlex Minor<\/em>, a glassfibre sailing canoe design of 20ft 4in (6.2m) which he intends to sail round Cape Horn<\/a> to Valdivia in Chile. This new boat has twin keels and 12m2 of canvas split between three square sails on freestanding masts.\r\n\r\nHis food, water and all his possessions for up to 150 days at sea amount to around 1 tonne. He stores 111 litres of water on board as he \u201cdoesn\u2019t trust desalinators. They can break down.\u201d At sea, his diet is a simple mix of oatmeal and almond flour \u2013 \u201clike muesli\u201d \u2013 and sardines. \u201cI eat the same every day,\u201d he says, \u201cand at lunchtime, not any other time.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI am a health nut. I believe in running and eating once a day for a long life.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141585\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" small-boat sailing legend Sven Yrvind. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand\/AFP\/Getty[\/caption]\r\n\r\nYrvind\u2019s way of life divides opinion. Many casual followers think his choice of yacht slightly mad, but the tiny boat community reveres him as a living legend. To him, it just makes plain sense. \u201cMy boats are very functional. If you go back to old magazines from the 1950s and 1960s, boats were not much bigger. Back then, a 30ft boat was quite a decent size. The Hiscocks sailed twice round the world in such a boat. Now 40ft is too small; it must be 50ft.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd what is big enough? With a small boat, you don\u2019t have a lot of problems with money. You go back to first principles. You also have a boat you can tow behind a car. I have been doing that down to France and Ireland. Or you can put it in a container. So small boats are really handy.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141583\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Yrvind in his 15ft 8in Exlex. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand\/AFP\/Getty[\/caption]\r\n

No room to stretch out<\/h2>\r\nSmaller even than Sven Yrvind\u2019s vessels are the record breakers\u2019 boats, no bigger than a bathtub.\r\n\r\nFor many years, the record for the smallest yacht to cross the Atlantic was held by Hugo Vihlen, a former Korean War fighter pilot and Delta Airlines captain from Florida. In 1968, he crossed from west to east in the 5ft 11in April Fool<\/em>. In 1993, his record was broken by Tom McNally, a fine arts lecturer from Liverpool, in his 5ft 4 1\/2in (1.6m) Vera Hugh<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThat prompted Vihlen, then aged 61, to go back out a few months later to recapture his record in Father\u2019s Day<\/em>, which was half an inch shorter than Vera Hugh<\/em>. Vihlen crossed from Newfoundland to Falmouth in 105 days.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141578\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Andrew Bedwell intends to take former record holder Tom McNally\u2019s modified 1.1m Big C to a new Atlantic record. Photo: Paul Larkin Photography[\/caption]\r\n\r\nNot to be outdone, McNally designed and built an even smaller boat for the record, the 3ft 10in (1.1m) Big C<\/em>. His plans were shattered when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and he was unable to sail it before he died in 2017.\r\n\r\nNext year, British sailor Andrew Bedwell hopes to break Vihlen\u2019s 30-year record. As a sailmaker and experienced sailor, he knows exactly what he is getting into. Bedwell has previously sailed a Mini 6.50 to the Arctic and been round Britain in a Class 40<\/a>.\r\n\r\nIn 2018 he started reading up about small boats. \u201cI had always had an interest in unusual challenges and things that were raw. I saw these boats and was amazed by them, and I started designing a vessel.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe contacted Tom McNally\u2019s daughter and was amazed to learn that Big C<\/em> was still lying in her garden. \u201cIt had never been in the water, or fitted out. Sails had been made for it, but they had never been used.\u201d\r\n\r\nLorraine McNally agreed to sell, and Bedwell worked out how he could modify it for him to sail across the Atlantic. He calculates that it will take him around 60-80 days to cover the 1,900 miles from Newfoundland to the Lizard, sailing at an average of 2.5 knots. It has twin headsails set on one furler, and external floats, or pods, that make it behave a little like a trimaran when heeled. Freeboard is only 35cm and \u201cshe really does bob like a cork\u201d, Bedwell says.\r\n\r\nThe boat is so tiny he cannot stretch out in it. \u201cWhen in there I have to sit. It is dead flat in the bottom and in calm conditions I can just about get into a foetal position \u2013 and I mean just. I\u2019ve modified the hull so my hip can just fit into a recess.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141577\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Big C is a tight squeeze for British sailor Andrew Bedwell, and he could spend up to 80 days in it crossing the Atlantic from Newfoundland to the Lizard.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWith the hatch fully shut the boat is watertight and airtight, but has only 40 minutes\u2019 worth of air, so Bedwell is making two rotating air scoops at the bow.\r\n\r\nWhen conditions allow, he might be able to stand up, or even go for a swim, but mainly \u201cthere is very little you can do with the lower body at all.\u201d\r\n\r\nMuscle wastage will be a major issue. To offset this at least partially, Bedwell will use a manual desalinator to make water. \u201cWe looked at putting in a generator to pedal but there isn\u2019t space.\u201d\r\n\r\nHis rationed food will amount to only 1,000 calories a day, \u201cso I will lose weight and muscle mass, but I want a slow, slow decline.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe food will all be the same. \u201cIt is a protein food similar to Shackleton\u2019s pemmican, a clever nutritional bar made of fat and protein, salt and honey, with a little bit of paracetamol to thin the blood and ascorbic acid to preserve it and prevent scurvy,\u201d he explains. \u201cI will eat that for at least a month before I go, to get used to it.\u201d\r\n\r\nAll 12 of the boat\u2019s watertight compartments will be filled with it. \u201cIt will be moulded in bags and pushed into the hull. I will take food from the external pods to start with and work inwards, so increasing stability as we go.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141579\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Italian skipper Alessandro Di Benedetto returns to Les Sables d\u2019Olonne in 2010 after a non-stop circumnavigation with his 21ft Mini Transat 6.50. Photo: Charly Triballeau\/AFP\/Getty[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBedwell\u2019s planning sounds scrupulous. But\u2026 isn\u2019t it the definition of suffering?\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, very close to it,\u201d he replies cheerfully. \u201cIf you said you were going to do this to prisoners, you wouldn\u2019t be allowed to, it\u2019d be against human rights.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s not going to be any comfort in it whatsoever. Food and navigation equipment are the absolute keys. There\u2019ll be no changes of clothes, for example, as there\u2019s no room. It\u2019s so tight. I can use some water to wash but it will be a flannel wash. l\u2019ll do what I can to prevent saltwater sores but there\u2019s not going to be any soap.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen close to the finish of one of his voyages, Tom McNally was hit by a ferry. The hull of his boat split and he had to be fished out of the water almost by the seat of his pants. Bedwell says: \u201cIf I\u2019m hit by a tanker I\u2019m not going to survive that, but tech has changed. Tom didn\u2019t have AIS but we have a standalone Class B transponder as well as a VHF<\/a> with AIS receiver<\/a>. I have a masthead light \u2013 the boat is so short it doesn\u2019t need to be a tricolour.\u201d\r\n\r\nBedwell says: \u201cPlanning this keeps your mind completely occupied as every single little detail has to be completely thought through.\u201d He rejects any suggestion that he is \u2018making a bid\u2019 for the record or similar phraseology. \u201cI am not attempting it. I\u2019m doing it. My theory is if I\u2019m just trying, I\u2019m not really pushing myself.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_141584\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Matt Kent\u2019s 2017 solo Atlantic crossing attempt in the 42in Undaunted ended in failure.[\/caption]\r\n

Smallest boats, smallest problems<\/h2>\r\nThe micro-voyagers seem to share a different way of looking at the world, a can-do attitude galvanised by their repudiations.\r\n\r\n\u201cHuman beings are very adaptable,\u201d says Sven Yrvind. \u201cLawrence of Arabia lived simply in the desert and said wine takes away the taste of water. It is the same with comfort. It depends on your mindset and how you think, how you look at life. Some people go on holiday on bicycles and put up a tent. Some want a car and a caravan. I think when they get back the man with the bicycle is happier and has more to think about.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou can get spoilt,\u201d he argues. \u201cIf you get something without fighting for it, you\u2019re not so happy when you get it.\u201d\r\n\r\nReturning after 31,000 miles and 360 days under sail in his little yacht, Yann Quenet insists that a small boat is the best. \u201cSmall boat equals small problems. When there is no engine, there is nothing to go wrong, just a simple boat that is simple to sail.\u201d\r\n\r\nAndrew Bedwell explains how he gradually dismissed fripperies. \u201cI\u2019d had plusher boats, but hated it \u2013 all the cushions and wiring hidden behind panels. It\u2019s just not me. I kept coming back to the simple things.\u201d Like Sven Yrvind and Yann Quenet, he made the realisation that his sense of achievement might be in inverse proportion to boat size.\r\n\r\nWhen people ask now about what he is doing with Big C<\/em>, he tells them, without a hint of irony: \u201cEveryone is different. I need something really big.\u201d\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n
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","excerpt":{"rendered":"

To understand what happened in Red Bank, New Jersey, in the first 10 days of February this year, you first have to understand the cold. This wasn\u2019t a regular winter. This was a freeze for the ages. A polar vortex settled over the US North-east like it had nowhere else to be, sending wind chills plunging to 20 below zero and locking waterways in ice that hadn\u2019t been this thick in decades. The Hudson River froze. The East River froze. New York Harbour froze. NYC Ferry suspended all routes. The Seastreak ferry \u2013 a lifeline for Jersey Shore commuters heading to Manhattan \u2013 needed a tugboat to crush a path through the ice in front of it just to make its daily run to the city. Rivers that normally flow became roads. Bays that normally ripple became glass. The Navesink \u2013 the wide, tidal river that curls through Red Bank like a signature \u2013 became something it hadn\u2019t been in over 20 years: a frozen stage for the oldest trophy race in American ice yachting.\\ Home of ice yachting Ice yachting on the Navesink River isn\u2019t a novelty. It\u2019s rooted deep in the area\u2019s heritage. In 1856, pioneers launched the first ice boats on this river, experimenting with three-runner and four-runner designs, lateen and gaff rigs, testing what worked and what didn\u2019t on the frozen surface of what many consider the most beautiful river in the country. What they started never really stopped. In 1880, Dr Edwin Field and a group of Red Bank sailors founded the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club on the river\u2019s south shore, where it has stood for nearly a century and a half. Between 1900 and 1910, Thomas Edison brought his cameras to the club to film the ice boats \u2013 short, silent films that captured Red Bankers gliding across the frozen Navesink in vessels that, at the time, were the fastest things on earth. Those films are now in the Smithsonian. Families have sailed their trademark designs on the river for generations. In the 1990s revolutionaries broke new ground with carbon fibre designs and cockpit canopies that pushed ice boats into a new era of speed. This is not a place that picked up ice yachting as a trend. This is where ice yachting lives. And at the centre of all of it sits a silver cup. In 1886, wealthy Hudson Valley ice yachtsman Gardiner Van Nostrand commissioned Tiffany & Co to create a unique cup for ice boat racing. It was to be held by the winning club and defended whenever challenged. The Van Nostrand Challenge Cup of America is, without exaggeration, the America\u2019s Cup of ice yachting. When it was last appraised during the 1978 race, the Tiffany silver trophy was valued at $20,000 \u2013 the equivalent of roughly $100,000 today. For most of its life, it has been locked inside a bank vault. The North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club won the cup in 1891. They defended it …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":447,"featured_media":162708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,980],"tags":[3116,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162699"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162718,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162699\/revisions\/162718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162699"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}