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Report from Resolute
11 Apr 2011
Jock rowing
Up here in Resolute it is currently -25 degrees but with a sharp 30 knot head wind the temperature feels more like -45 with the wind chill. One of the questions I am continually being asked is how we are going to get the boat to Resolute in time for us to make the Start Line for the end of July. The answer is by plane! In fact "The Old Pulteney" was designed and built so that she could fit into the back of a small plane.
Initially she will leave the UK in a 40 ft container and travel by ship to Montreal and then by rail to Edmonton. From Edmonton she goes on a truck to Yellowknife. The road to Yellowknife is open all year round. In the winter the trucks travel on the frozen ice. All shades of "Arctic truckers". From Yellowknife the plane will take the boat and a 3 man advance party on a four hour flight to Resolute.
Old design is still good design
Thought you would like to see me “doing some work” (and having a laugh with Rob Sleep, in front). On the top left of the picture the “lee board” raised. We swap it over to be on the more upwind side of the boat when going into the wind. Because of the “cathedral” style hull the boat in fact “tracks” quite well but we knew we would need some help when going into the wind. We were all a bit “chary” about a daggerboard or centerboard because of the risk of water ingress into the interior of the boat through structural damage and I guess we will be hitting a lot of things. It was Mark Delstanche who suggested a lee board a la Dutch Barge and it has proved to be very efficient and the loading on it seems to be a lot less than with a more conventional board. The round blue Glassfibre dome structure on top is to hold the Satellite dish.