A year ago, we posted about Andrew Bedwell, who planned on attempting to set a new world record for sailing the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic. His vessel, Big C is just over 1m/3.2ft long.
On Saturday, Bedwell set sail from St Johns, Newfoundland bound for Lizard Point in Cornwall. On the first day of the planned 1,900 nm voyage, however, his boat started to take on water, and he thought it best to turn around.
When he returned to port, things went from bad to disastrous. The tiny Big C had taken on considerable water and had “basically sunk,” Bedwell said. When they attempted to lift the boat out by its framework, the structure gave way and the craft dropped, which “basically destroyed the boat.”
A distraught Bedwell thanked all those who had supported him and said that “Big C is no more. She can’t carry on. I can’t do it. I am sorry.”
Bedwell, who delivers yachts around the world and works as a sailmaker, has spent most of his adult life embarking on hair-raising nautical adventures. He previously sailed non-stop around Britain and has taken his small 6.5m carbon racing yacht across the Atlantic and up to the Arctic Circle.
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