After spending a lot of time researching the project, the ice information, reading blogs and websites on other yachts that have sailed either or both the North East Passage and the North West Passage; the next step was to start looking at yachts. Not having ever purchased a yacht, not in least a yacht for sailing in the Arctic, where do you start.
Well we started by taking advice from a consultancy company who specialise in sailing in the high latitudes. They provided some bespoke training for us that covered a large number of topics involved in sailing in the high latitudes. As part of this yacht selection was an element that we covered. We had a few ideas of the type of vessel that might be good to have for such an expedition. During the training the pros and cons of these vessels were discussed. We also looked at the kind of modifications that these yachts might need and what things we would need to take into consideration. Out of some six yachts that we initially looked at, two we went to see in person. These two yachts happened to be the two extremes of the selection of yachts that we were looking at.