Derek Hatfield connaît bien la problématique d’un tour du monde en solitaire puisqu’il l’a réalisé en 2002 sur un 40 pieds et a même dû s’arrêter pour réparer après avoir démâté au large du cap Horn !

Ce plan Owen Clarke est quasiment un sistership d’Ecover 2 : Spirit of Canada est le premier monocoque IMOCA réalisé au Canada.

It just wouldn't let up. For the past 4 days I've have 30 - 40 and then 28-30 knots today. At 40 knots the boat banks really hard and just bangs constantly. I'm bruised and battered because of the movement of the boat. You feel so weak. The boat is very jerky. There's always lots of motion and action....

Hello from Spirit of Canada A tough sailing day today with winds shifting in direction and strength, going from 12 knots up to 25 knots. So I have been spending a lot of time on deck putting in reefs and taking them out....

Hello from Spirit of Canada 16 December 2007 More downwind sailing with full mainsail and Code O. There is between 12 and 15 knots of wind and we are almost making a direct course for the finish line. My prediction is for my finish sometime late Wednesday....

Hello from Spirit of Canada 15 December 15, 2007 The wind is back! Finally we have some decent wind, albeit from the south it is a welcome change from that heinous area behind us that held us for so many hours. I’m sailing a direct course to the finish line at speed so it feels great....

Hello from Spirit of Canada 14 December 2007 Overall it’s been a good sailing day but still not a lot of wind. On average about 8 knots of wind from the southeast so we are going off the wind for a change....

Hello from Spirit of Canada – 13th Dec 2007 The slow sailing persists in this high pressure zone and it looks it will be around for a while. I didn’t make much progress overnight last night and this morning the sea was rolling glass....

Hello from Spirit of Canada - 11th December 2007 The wind is back which does wonders for my motivation. No wind is stressful. I’m really missing that genoa now though as we are going upwind in 10-12 knots. The boat is not fully powered up but moving along well at between 6 & 10 knots upwind...

Its been a long frustrating day for the back end of the fleet I suspect. I know these slow days are the most stressfull type of sailing as you cannot leave the deck for fear that you miss an opportunity to make a small adjustment to the sail trim or the compass in order to gain a fraction of boat speed...

Hello from Spirit of Canada It’s been day three of banging and splashing our way upwind. Who ever came up with the idea of an upwind race in Open 60’s. Anyway I feel that the trade winds are much stronger right now, maybe because we are going upwind has something to do with it...

Hello from Spirit of Canada – 9th December 2007 Seeing all of the damage reports coming in from the fleet after the upwind pounding we were getting, I was hoping to get away with little damage. But, just as the wind started to weaken, disaster struck this morning when I discovered the outer forestay very loose....

Day four of the heavy upwind work, I must say it’s getting tiring always being over on the side all the time. I keep looking ahead for Dee’s stern light but not yet...

Hello From Spirit of Canada Today was a long day exiting from the doldrums and into wind, plenty of wind. Most of the day the boat was upwind at 26kts True. Welcome to the northern trades and then some...

Here are in the middle of the doldrums with rain showers and wind holes. We, the boat and I are slowly recovering from a rocky first few days and I look forward to being able to perform better...

Just passing Ilha De Fernando De Noronha off to the west. There is a lot of black clouds and some rain around so spending a lot of time on deck. It's very hot in the cabin anyway...

A tough day today with my unexpected beach tour along the coast. Otherwise everything is fine, hot but fine....

hello bto b, sorry for no email last night, the sat c is having a difficult time. i will try again later. everything on board is fine, a few boat issues but normal...