Bid to be the oldest solo
circumnavigator thwarted

The bid by Dr Stanley Paris to become the oldest solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigator has been thwarted by his mainsail separating along a seam on Christmas Eve.

A New Zealander, resident for many years in the United States, Paris, 77, set off from his home in St Augustine, Florida, on 9 November 2014 and sailed for Bermuda so that  he could challenge the record set by Dodge Morgan for a Bermuda to Bermuda circumnavigation in addition to his primary challenge of being the oldest circumnavigator. Morgan, the first American to sail solo around the globe with no stops, completed his 1986 journey in 150 days, cutting the prior record of 292 days nearly in half. Paris hoped to complete his voyage in 120 days but on Christmas Eve the top quarter of his mainsail separated and he determined that he could not repair the sail at sea. He made for Cape Town and arrived on 30 December.

His boat, Kiwi Spirit, will be returned to the United States by a delivery crew.

Kiwi Spirit was designed by Farr Yacht design and built by Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding. She is 19.4 metre long, of carbon, E-glass and Kevlar construction with a hydraulic lifting keel that draws just under 4.5m down and 2.6m raised. Four water ballast compartments are filled to counter the power of the rig.

Kiwi Spirit is designed to circle the globe with no hydrocarbons on board. Solar panels are installed on deck and small hydro regenerators are mounted under the vessel. A series of wind generators will help charge the boat’s ion phosphate batteries.

Dr Stanley Paris

Paris had, in the first few weeks of his voyage, to contend with a finicky autopilot that later stopped functioning, hydro generators clogged with sargassum, an uncooperative pump that left him battling to fill the upwind ballast tanks, and a large block on deck that detached and whipped away one of the Bimini support poles with its line.

But he likes a challenge. According to his biographical notes, he has previously swum the English Channel twice as his wife, Catherine, sailed their boat alongside him, and has also competed in the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii.

Paris had funded his voyage himself and suggested that anyone who wished to donate money should support his favourite charity – the Foundation for Physical Therapy.

You can follow his sailing blog at Kiwi Spirit.