During this time we also met with a yacht yard and they recommended that the best possible vessel for us to complete the objective of a circumnavigation in one season would be a motor vessel. David didn’t like this idea, and his vision for the project was sailing in the Arctic Ocean. With this in mind and clarified, the hunt for a suitable sailing vessel continued.
It was recognised that the sailing vessel would need to have a suitable engine as there would be a large proportion of the time when the expedition would need to be moving under the power of the motor. When the expedition experiences light winds the motor will need to be used to keep them progressing forwards to give them the best chance of making it round both the North East Passage and the North West Passage in a single Arctic Summer season. The motor will also need to be used when the vessel is in ice. The motor provides the manoeuvrability to ensure that they can keep progressing forwards and also keep the vessel and the crew safe.