Sail
Austrian aborts attempt at solo non-stop circumnavigation
Sailor Norbert Sedlacek on board his yacht IY Open60AAL. photo
© Shipyard Innovation Yachts/dpa
He wanted to cover around 34,000 nautical miles non-stop and alone, without an escort boat, across all oceans in around 200 days. But Norbert Sedlacek has to end his project early – now for the fourth time.
Austrian sailor Norbert Sedlacek has also abandoned his fourth attempt at a sustainable non-stop circumnavigation.
His team said he collided with an unknown object in the sea. The rudder attachment was broken, without which he could no longer steer properly. The 60-year-old former tram driver will therefore return to Les Sables-d’Olonne, around 100 kilometers north-west of La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast. He left there on Monday.
Sedlacek started in a boat made entirely of recyclable materials. He wanted to cover around 34,000 nautical miles non-stop and alone, without an escort boat, across all oceans, including the Arctic and Southern Ocean, in around 200 days. It would have been the first time that a sailor had mastered such a route.
His previous attempt failed in Iceland in 2021 due to power supply problems. In 2019 he had to turn back because a sail ripped southwest of Ireland in a storm. In 2018, too, technical reasons forced him to give up after three days.
Facebook page of the sailing record attempt