Multiple challenges
Three-time solo round the world veteran skipper Norbert Sedlacek now aims to join the very short list of yachtsmen to have successfully traversed the Northwest Passage under sail. But, as Matt Sheahan finds out, that is just the beginning
Fibres made from volcanic rock might not be at the top of your list as a construction material to consider for a boat of any type, let alone one that would share the racing style and characteristics of a modern Imoca 60. Yet this is the material that was used to create Innovation Yacht’s 60- footer for solo sailor Norbert Sedlacek in his quest to set a reference time for an unusual and challenging lap of the planet. After two false starts, both times cur-
tailed by a diverse range of technical issues, in 2020 the Ant Arctic Lab project will see Sedlacek set out on a 34,000nm non-stop circumnavigation that will begin with a trip through the Northwest Passage. From there he will sail down the Pacific along the west coast of the Americas and turn east at Cape Horn for a lap of Antarctica before heading north to the finish back in Les Sables. His goal, to be the first to accomplish a non-stop circumnavigation that takes in all of the world’s oceans. The trip is extraordinary, taking in the extremes of both hemispheres to complete
58 SEAHORSE
a figure of eight-styled tour of the world. Yet there is a great deal more to this project than the voyage itself, which is estimated to take around 200 days. ‘Originally we were looking at a race
from New York to Vancouver via the Northwest Passage but when the organ - isers’ plans collapsed our project came to an abrupt halt,’ said Sedlacek. ‘But then a friend of mine in the Vendée region said why don’t you do a version of the Vendée Globe that visits all of the oceans? ‘I’m pretty familiar with the Imoca 60,
which has always been a benchmark for me for long-distance offshore racing, and I knew that a normal Imoca wouldn’t be able to cope with the ice, so my boat would need to be much stronger. I also knew this trip had never been done before… so let’s do it.’ Launched in 2018, the construction of
Sedlacek’s 60-footer, AAL, is a marked departure from the norm. Built by Innova- tion Yachts, a company co-founded by Sedlacek and design engineer Marion Koch to create boats that incorporate sustainable materials, AAL’s hull is con- structed from volcanic rock fibres and a balsa sandwich. ‘Volcanic fibres have been around for a
while and have been used in the military for heat-protection applications. Today they are also used in the construction of wind turbine blades,’ said Koch. ‘The fibres have good structural properties in tension and compression and are stronger than glass while being around 20 per cent
the price of carbon. They also have good shock-absorbing properties. ‘In addition to this, volcanic fibres are
hydrophobic so they do not suffer from osmosis, they are UV resistant and are obviously fully recyclable – they offer plenty of useful characteristics.’ The fibres are produced commercially
by Isomatix, in Belgium, and are created by heating volcanic rock to a high temper- ature in an electric induction furnace to melt and purify the lava before extruding filaments through platinum-rhodium dies. From here a yarn is produced which is then used in the production of the woven rovings, tapes and matt. While the build process for the hull and
deck is conventional, using a wet lay-up and vacuum bag system, the core material and resin matrix also see steps taken in a new direction. The balsa core is sourced from 3A
Composites, a company that specialises in sustainable core materials. The balsa is from the company’s own FSC-certified plantations in Ecuador and Papua New Guinea. Finally, the resin matrix is pro- duced by BTO Epoxy and is also fully recyclable, biologically safe, solvent free and harmless to health, while having good UV and osmosis-resistant properties. While the specific materials may be a
departure from the norm they are familiar to Innovation Yachts. Their extraordinary little 16ft offshore test mule Fipofix used the same construction technique and materials as a proof of concept. She made the first of
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