no propulsion, no lights that I can see, the worst time of year for weather…this man is obviously planning to die out there! I don’t know whether to pray for him or to laugh out loud at the idiocy of this stunt
what we need here is a separate category for news of the absurd
A new twist on a message in a bottle.
He does have AIS, and he appears to be a daredevil of wide experience – championships in judo twice, surfing seven times, parachuting four times, sailing twice, triathlon nine times; four Atlantic crossings (don’t know in what), climbed Mont Blanc solo etc. Says his work has given him a taste for risk and adventure.
Hope he likes sailing downwind.
can’t say about the overall construction of his vessel but look at this photo and tell me what you notice about the hatch?
if you answer built very flimsy and not watertight you’d be spot on correct
But he’s sponsored by the Garonne Cooperage – they surely wouldn’t send him out with a faulty bung? 
Those hinges sure look flimsy.
A contraption not unlike this, but built from steel and with mast and sail, was sailed across the North Atlantic from Aalesund, Norway to Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1904:
Seen here on display at Aalesund Museum:
PS> The book is also available on Amazon:
that hatch is going to get ripped off one night, two screws each hinge into fibreglass? do they even have nuts and washers on them? based on the look of the hatch alone he’s a gonner. jeez, 72 yrs. old … you’d think he’d choose a more sedate ‘outing’. first time that thing gets rolled clear over with any speed that hatch will simply pop off. I’d like to know who built it, what their experience is with floating objects!!
nd that glass dome thing is going to add a tremendous amount of leverage to that weak looking hatch.
Was built by a cooperage…
That capsule will probably ride like a duck with few problems. The hatch in the photo may not impress us, but I’ve seen much worse. Small flimsy old sailboats cross oceans all the time and relatively few are lost.
The Atlantic have been crossed in both direction and by many different types of crafts. This is just one more nut case that does it for fun, not because he need to, or have any real mission:
This list is not exhaustive. There have been many more crossings in flimsy contraption, with and without power.
Here is one example of a crossing along the same route:
… If he does succeed, it will be interesting to compare his drift “performance” with those who paddled, rowed and sailed other contraptions across.
And on that topic…
But there is something about the shape and surface area of that thing that are really scary. The height and the dead flat ends are just begging for a wave to crush the thing like a paper cup. The toyboat portlights look like they might last a few days and leak in the rain. The hatch is secured by 4 dogs inside so the hinges won’t much matter unless they come loose but it does look pretty lame.
All in all it looks like a flameless Viking funeral craft.
Dont know about that. There is a knife edge combing, hatch w/ double hinges, and dogs. Not too different that the typical class approved lifeboat. Not that I would say this stunt is any smarter. At least he’ll get to see the ship’s hull that runs his ass over.
More interesting reading:
Could run into anything:
well a little more a week into his odyssey…our wayward mariner is gradually making his way towards the arctic
You should have traded places
Shit, I did that across the Atlantic once, on a pile of junk called the Maersk Ohio…
