Polar 65 Fraternidade in Tahiti

The expedition sailboat Fraternidade is already sailing in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. This boat designed to take young scientist to the most remote nooks in the planet is for B & G Yacht Design a hallmark in our line of shoal-friendly stock plans which we name “polar yachts”.

Up to now Fraternidade is accomplishing a quick passage, leaving Salvador, her home port, in January, 16, 2010, having called at Grenada in the West Indies, Panama, Galapagos, the Marquises and Rangiroa, reaching the cross-road harbour of Papeete in June 6, 2010, nothing different from the classic “milk run” route. Now we must wait to see what surprises her captain, the daredevil Aleixo Belov will earmark for the followers of his site. (See in our links section: Polar 65 Fraternidade). Considering his earlier adventures, we may count on exciting stories in the future legs..

That this brand new boat sails superbly and deserves plenty of confidence, this is unquestionable. Friends of ours who took part on its first sea-trial, a six-hundred miles round trip from Salvador to Fernando de Noronha, an ocean island in the South Atlantic, informed us that Fraternidade is as stable as a lead mine and her decks are quite dry when beating full-canvassed in fresher breezes. The photos they kindly sent us are witness of their remarks. With her bullet-proof rig and the strength to be expected from a metallic hull, we already had for granted that when cruising in the tropics she would perform as if sailing in a pond. Her eventless trip from Salvador, Brazil, to Tahiti is proof that she had been very distant from being requested to her limits so far.

Polar 65 Fraternidade docked in Papeete’s waterfront…By chance the geographic point where she stationed is exactly the same where Eileen and Roberto Barros had their twenty-five foot sailboat Sea Bird docked more than forty years ago.

In a coincidence hard to believe, the photo above shows Fraternidade next to a Polynesian-type catamaran, having her stern hawsers probably lashed to the same bollards ashore used to fix the twenty-five foot engineless pocket cruiser Sea Bird’s stern. Roberto Barros and his wife Eileen had sailed on that tiny boat from Rio de Janeiro to Tahiti, and in that idyllic address was born Astrid, their only daughter. It was in Park Bougainville, the garden to the right corner of the photo, that Eileen used to take Astrid to profit from sun-bathing in the early morning coolness of the park. (You can read the story “Rio to Polynesia” with link from our site’s front page). Papeete might have changed radically in the meantime; however this very spot remained almost untouched along all these years.

Aleixo Belov is an old salt with three round the world trips in solitary aboard his forty-foot home-built Tres Marias. It seems that he is being impelled to return to the places where he lived unforgettable experiences, now wanting to share these memories with other people.

Now in July our buddy, the young naval architect Rafael Coelho, will join Fraternidade’s crew for the next stretch of the voyage, and being a collaborator in the development of the plans, since he was a trainee at our office when we were still established in Rio de Janeiro, he will have the possibility to report us about his impressions regarding the performance and functionality of this authentic “expedition machine”. Considering that the Polar 65 stock plan is a very peculiar design, having yet a lot to teach us on how it actually behaves under harsh conditions, the information Rafael might provide us is invaluable. Some of its features are already being tested, as was the case when entering Rangiroa Atoll pass: reducing draught from 4.50m to 1.50m (14’ 9” to 4’ 11”), using the twin engines at full throttle and profiting from the superb steering control provided by its two rudders, it is no wonder that Fraternidade entered the lagoon without any difficulty, being able to reach a convenient place to anchor totally out of reach for much smaller fixed keel mono-hulls.

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