Sail without borders
Hervé Couturier, the owner of the first Exploration 52, Aquarius, is cruising with a purpose. He is an active member of Voiles Sans Frontières, a French humanitarian charity that provides aid to communities that are difficult to reach by land. The first project was to deliver medical equipment to the highly inaccessible Sine-saloum delta region of Senegal. “We performed two humanitarian missions, bringing and installing medical equipment, books, medicine and telecommunication devices, as well as performing clean-up, decoration and architectural planning work,” he reported. Couturier, a software engineer, says he became a supporter of the organisation 20 years ago. “Now I have more time and [I have] the boat, I’m helping them,” he says.
Aquarius then sailed onto the Cape Verdes and the Caribbean, all the while deploying an Argo beacon to monitor sea temperature variation. Argo is part of a broad climate observation network under UN sponsorship. On deployment the beacon dives down to 1,000m for 10 days' autonomous use, before resurfacing, transmitting the data, then diving again.
The hard-top that overhangs the coachroof on Aquarius is customised to the owner’s height. The area beneath this overhang can be sealed off with a canopy, trapping the heat coming up from the interior. I cannot recall a better cockpit position from which to stand a watch, no matter what the weather. Of course, the navstation down below would provide even greater shelter, but it gives me shivers just thinking about how bad the conditions would need to be for me to need more shelter than the forward end of this cockpit!
The cockpit is set up for the crew to sail the boat without needing to leave its protection. The inboard primaries are just in front of the twin helms – a practical and safe position to work – and all control lines are brought aft under the coachroof where they can be easily managed.
There are useful cubby holes in the coamings to keep rope tails tidy.