Icy passage challenge for lone yachtsman

Graeme Kendall is certain boredom won't be a problem when he sets out to become the first yachtsman to sail non-stop around the world via the Northwest Passage.

Kendall, 58, from Christchurch, leaves Auckland tomorrow on a 40,000km voyage through the Arctic Circle and back.

He is paying for the venture himself in aid of Variety, the children's charity, for which he hopes to raise $1 million.

His journey on his 12.5m cruising yacht Astral Express is expected to take him up to six months.

"It can be quite busy - three meals a day and so forth," he said.

"I've got a full 40-gigabyte iPod [music player] and I'm taking numerous books."

Kendall will also have with him the latest navigational technology as he bids to become the first solo sailor through the Northwest Passage in Canada's icy north.

The passage had for centuries fascinated European explorers looking for an alternative sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In 1905, Norwegian Roald Amundsen, later to become the first person to reach the South Pole, led the first navigation by ship.

The passage, however, has not proved an ideal one for shipping, as it is blocked by ice for most of the year.

Kendall said four or five yachts went through a year but no one had completed the trip solo.

"I want to do it," he said.

"I want to sail around the world and I want to incorporate something that hasn't been done before and the Northwest Passage has always intrigued me. So I'm putting all three together."

From Auckland, Kendall will pass the northern coast of Australia, round the Cape of Good Hope and head north through the Atlantic.

After negotiating the Northwest Passage, he will sail through the Pacific back to New Zealand.

Like all yachting ventures, Kendall will need luck with the weather.

"The ice, which tends to freeze up in some places to 2m thick, generally thaws in the late summer months of August and September," he said.

"It's just a matter of getting a mild season so there are clear ways right way through. Sometimes it will be absolutely clear. Other times you will get one area that's blocked and that's the end of it."

Kendall was optimistic about the forecast for the coming northern summer, saying the winter just gone had been one of the more mild on record.

While navigating through ice always had dangers he was confident he had the boat to get him through.

The Astral Express, launched two months ago, had a kevlar hull with a reinforced bow and a steel retractable keel.

It was built for Arctic conditions, where minimum temperatures in the summer could fall to minus 15C taking in the wind chill factor.

Kendall is looking to raise $25 for Variety for each kilometre he sails and has set up a phone number - 0900 CHILD (0900-24453) - for donations.

Variety has agreed that 20 per cent of the funds raised will be split between Cholmondeley Home in Christchurch and the Christchurch Bone Marrow Trust.

"It might be hopeful to think that we can get that much," Kendall said of the $1 million target.

"It just happened to be a round figure. It would be encouraging for me to know I could get that sort of support. It would make the gloomy days not so gloomy."

Kendall has cruised and raced over 100,000 nautical miles over the past 35 years.

His ocean-going experience includes the Melbourne-Osaka two-handed race and sailing with Sir Peter Blake.

* Kendall's progress can be monitored on the website below.

- NZPA