There’s no accounting for the dreams some sailors foster, particularly those who hanker to hold the record for sailing the smallest boat across the North Atlantic Ocean. One of those dreamers is Englishman Andrew Bedwell whose quest came to a sudden end last week after only 75 miles at sea.
Bedwell set off from Newfoundland on Wednesday June 3 in his 100 centimeter (that’s three feet, four inches) sloop named Big C V2. His aim was to sail to England and set the new Guiness Book of World Records mark for the smallest vessel to make the crossing.
On June 4, he posted to his public app: “Day 2: pressure dropping so I know something’s coming, kinda anxious as at yet not seen weather report.. 4 june”
That was his last post. On Friday morning June 5, he notified the Canadian Coast Guard Service that he was in need of assistance. In a statement, the CCGS said: “On Friday morning, June 5, at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time, the Canadian Coast Guard was advised that the sailor onboard the Big C Atlantic Challenge, a small 1.2 metre sailing vessel, was in need of assistance. The vessel was approximately 75 miles east of Grates Cove, NL.”
The CCGS dispatched the cutter Sacred Bay and late Friday afternoon Bedwell was aboard and headed back to dry land. His tiny vessel was still afloat and transmitting its position.
The existing and still current record for the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic belongs to American Hugo Vehlen who in 1993 sailed across the ocean in his five-foot, three-inch sloop Father’s Day. Despite Bedwell’s determined efforts it seems likely that record will stand for a long while.
This year’s attempt aboard Big C V2 was Bedwell’s second. In his first try in 2023, his tiny vessel Big C developed a leak right after being launched in Newfoundland and needed to be hauled out for repairs. But disaster struck when one of the hoisting slings broke sending Big C crashing down onto the rip-rap harbor wall. The boat was a total loss.
Bedwell is no stranger to small-boat adventure sailing. He has competed in the Jester Transatlantic Race for small sailboats and has cruised his 21-foot mini-transat sloop from England to Iceland and then north to the Arctic Circle.
Now two attempts and two boats down, will Bedwell try for the record a third time? In an interview with Practical Boat Owner magazine he said, “There are a few given things in life – you will be born and you will die, but in the middle there is a dash, and I want to fill that dash with as many adventures as I possibly can.”
So, maybe a third try for the record is in the cards.
