Across The Atlantic In The Box.

Some cross the Atlantic by luxury liner, but Andrew Bedwell is making the 3058kms trip in a handmade boat that is too small to lie down in, comparing it to spending 3 months “stuck in a wheelie bin on a rollercoaster”.

Bedwell, 49, left St John’s, Newfoundland, 27th May 2023 in a glass-fibre vessel
that is just over a metre in length. He will not even be able to stretch his legs out fully while sitting.

If Bedwell lands in one piece in late August 2023, he will beat the record, set 30
years ago, for the smallest boat to have made a transatlantic crossing.

The sailmaker, from Scarisbrick, Lancashire, who delivers yachts around the world, spent three years building his 600kg craft, Big C, and said he had tried to make it “as bulletproof as possible”.

He expects it to capsize en route and has designed it to right itself should it do so during the storms he has forecast. Should he need to remain inside, the air will last for 40 minutes. He will be strapped in with a harness during bad weather and will have a support crew to track his progress. Bedwell will only able to stand to stretch his legs and, during calmer weather, perform exercises prescribed by a physiotherapist.

He aims to take 20-minute naps as often as he can but these, too, will have to be taken seated. The lavatory facilities are "over the side", he explained, though a diet of vitamin-based drinks and food bags of raisins, beef jerky and fat should minimise the need. A desalinator will provide him with drinkable water.