FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Nordhavn 46 to take on Cape Horn
PAE’s Jim Leishman to join as crew
Dana Point, CA –
(January 12, 2007) – A Nordhavn 46 faces what is
considered the ultimate test of yachting as it attempts to round Cape Horn and
become one of the few production powerboats to accomplish the feat. Next week,
Scott and Mary Flanders plan to take their boat, Egret, around the Horn, located at the southernmost tip of South America and notorious for the strong winds, large
waves and icebergs that surround it. In doing so, they will also become the
first Nordhavn to conquer the infamous great cape.
The trip around Cape Horn is just part of the next leg of Egret’s momentous journey from
Gibraltar to New Zealand.
Having departed the Med in September 2006, the crew has encountered some rough
seas and gale-force winds – typical weather found off the coast of South America. But the three-person team has maintained a
“work as usual” attitude, thanks in part to the comfort they have
thus far enjoyed. “The trip down the South American coast has to have
been the most comfortable that a boat – power or sail – traveling
that stretch of coast has ever experienced,” said Scott Flanders.
In the wake of passing through one of the world’s most
treacherous cruising grounds, Flanders remains
unflappable. Rounding Cape Horn has been a
personal goal for the couple and they have spent a long time preparing for it.
And while they recognize the magnitude of what they are about to embark on,
they are viewing it as just one more adventure to record in their travelogue.
“It will probably not be easy,” Scott said, mentioning that a conservative
approach will be taken. “We will not make an attempt in weather anywhere
close to some of the nasty weather we experienced on the trip south from Brazil.”
Still, he adds, “None of [the crew] are
anxious.”
Nerves of steel? Perhaps, but more so a tribute to the
confidence they have in the boat that got them there. And, just maybe, due to
the fourth crew member who will be joining them. Jim Leishman, vice president
of Pacific Asian Enterprises, manufacturer of Nordhavns, will join Egret’s crew as she makes her way
around the Horn.
“I'm extremely excited about this” says
Leishman. “I've read stories of the great Southern Ocean, of Patagonia,
Terra Del Fuego, and the Drake Passage. I
never thought I’d have the opportunity to experience the Roaring Forties,
to sail around the Horn aboard a boat I helped design and build.”
“It’s really the Everest of yachting,” he
said.
Many Nordhavns have crossed oceans and circumnavigated the
globe, but all have done so bypassing the Horn. For Flanders,
rounding the Horn started as a far-reaching goal that became a reality once he
and Mary decided they really wanted to cruise what they call “the best
isolated cruising remaining in the world.”