Sailor to eat walls of his tiny yacht on three-month Atlantic crossing
Protein bars line the hull of one-metre-long vessel hoping to be the smallest to complete the journey
YOU need a lot of food for three months at sea, but one sailor has taken packed lunches to a new level.
Andrew Bedwell, 48, will be eating the walls of his boat, which is just a metre long, when he attempts to cross the Atlantic in the smallest ever vessel.
The father-of-one, who is six-foot tall and weighs 11.5 stone, has designed a cabin with just enough room to move around. Meals will be protein bars in bags, which his wife Tracey has moulded to fit into the crevices of the yacht, which he likened to a wheelie bin. “It’s like I’m eating the boat ... but you’ll want to keep the most important bits,” said Mr Bedwell, of Scarisbrick, Lancs. “It might even be moulded into the back part of the seat so my seat might be made of food.
“We are having to eat from the outside first to increase the stability of the boat – I’ll be picking from the front left then the front right, back left and back right. It will taste pretty vile, but it’s just to do the job. There’s not going to be any kind of niceties in there, but my daughter might put the odd Skittle in.”
“By the end of the passage, I will have a fair bit more space.”
The 1,000-calorie bags will be moulded “in every available space” when he sets off from Newfoundland, Canada, in May next year.
He hopes trade winds will bring him to Cornwall’s Lizard Point within 90 days and will start trials in Whitehaven, Cumbria, soon.
The record is held by Hugo Vihlen, who made the journey in a 5ft 4in (1.6m) boat 30 years ago. Mr Bedwell’s boat, which is half a metre shorter and has a top speed of 2.5mph, is a modified version of one designed by another former record holder, Tom Mcnally. It took more than three years to build the vessel, which he calls “The Big C”. It is just 11.4ft (3.5m) tall with a sail area of 26ft (eight metres).
“In rough conditions it will be rolling all over the place,” Mr Bedwell mused. “It will be the worst motion you can ever imagine on a rollercoaster, when you’re 1,000 miles away from anyone.
“In a rollercoaster, you know you’re 99 per cent safe. In this, you don’t. Waves can do awful things. I’ve got a helmet with foam in it, my head is going to be banged on the dome. I can brace, cross my legs and push my arms out.”
Other modifications include a hose allowing Mr Bedwell to relieve himself, though he does not expect to pass many bowel movements, because the protein bars are low in fibre.
Limited to 1,000 calories a day, the biggest challenge will be muscle atrophy and on calm days he will spend up to 12 hours sitting on top of the vessel, doing exercises.
“I could encounter a whale that hits me on the boat,” he said. “I always like to have a real challenge on the go – although my wife quite often feels I’m crackers – but I said that before I’m 50 I want to have done something amazing.”