Sailing expedition to Greenland

The sailing boat Croatian Tern is a Bruce Roberts designed trader / explorer, designed for open-sea voyage. She has a relatively low centre of lateral plan, short masts and reduced surface area of the sails compared with other boats the same size, since speed is not the main imperative. She is 19.8 meters (65 feet) in length, 5.06 meters wide, with two masts (ketch).

Special consideration was taken of the fact that she will sail through the polar regions with possible impact with sea ice; material used was high strength steel of increased toughness at low temperatures. She has a custom designed rudder extending from keel, and a specially protected propeller, enabling her to sail in frigid polar seas.

The vessel takes her name from a bird, the Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisea). This bird is an apt symbol of the expedition for several reasons: the elegant and graceful species breeds in circumpolar regions of the North Hemisphere and winters on the opposite side of the Globe. It connects all continents: the Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America during breeding season, Africa, South America and occasionally Australia during migration, and Antarctica through wintering months. The length of its annual migration is over 30,000 km, and planned navigational route of our expedition follows this path to a great extent. Similar to the journey of the Arctic Tern, our journey will connect places and people from many continents.

 
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