An Australian is going to cross the Atlantic on an UNIRIGGED M20 in an attmpt to beat the record set by the Italian Matteo Miceli a couple of years ago.
Apparently the boat does not seem suited for the task (I mean that the other boats which tried to perform the crossing in the past were much heavier ( 200 kgs at least) and more "confortable"
For more info:
http://www.solo-atlantic.com



Let's wait and see

now THAT's crazy.

Isn't this the same boat that has failed to finish many of the South Florida distance races? If it can't stay together long enough to finish those, good luck crossing the Atlantic.

Regards,
Robert

I like the racks and seat.

Nice setup! Hope he makes it!

I thought he was just another nut job until I went to his web site and read his bio. He's got quite a lot of fast sailing under his belt and some Syd-Hobart as well, I think he has a pretty good idea of what he is getting into. I do wonder about the boat holding up to 14 straight days of abuse, if/when the weather gets nasty, but I'm guessing he's got a plan for that too.

We had a thread going earlier about some sort of teather to the boat, I wonder what he is going to use.

I don't think this is the kind of publicity beachcat sailors need, especially if things turn out badly.

Although, if the boat makes it, perhaps it will be good 'street cred' for the M20's durability

I have trouble picturing surviving on a catamaran for 14 days while crossing solo. I wish him luck in the crossing. I wonder what he has for support if somethinh goes wrong during the crossing. How easy is it to right an M-20 in normal conditions, much less in the adverse conditions that he will run into during the crossing? The guy has balls.

I think i saw he had some type of self inflating devices that will keep him afloat while awaiting rescue.

Seems to me that the M-20 is a very sensative boat to sail. Does anyone have the insight on how the auto-helm will work?
There is no way he could just cleat off the sails, set the auto-helm and take a nap and expect the boat to stay pointy end up.

I forgot the exact details but the autopilot he is using probably has a gyro to "feel" what the boat is doing.
Its the same stuff that the MiniTransat boats use, their speed is probably not that much lower than the M20 and it planing/surfing most of the time.
I met the guy who is helping him with it (Jan Klaver), he was sailing his first multihull regatta at the last Tiger Worlds.