Welcome to the W2N website

 

 

                                             

Besides all the latest news, photos and chat, this website is the mechanism that you’ll use to control the progress and ultimately, the success of the W2N challenge.

 

Your contribution is absolutely essential and might just make the difference between success and failure. So press ‘Ctrl D’ now to add this to your favourite website's and remember to visit regularly.

 

Also, register your contact details now for free and you’ll be kept up to date with the latest developments and importantly, will occasionally be invited to submit your all-important votes.

 

Back in the summer of 2006, fuelled by a lifelong passion for sailing, a rather reflective review of my life revealed a restlessness that evolved rapidly into a unique, unpredictable and challenging project I’m calling W2N or ‘Where to Next?’ I say ‘evolved’ largely because the original (albeit lacking in originality) plan was simply to sell the house, sell the business, buy a yacht and set off on an entirely ill-advised and self-indulgent cruise around the world. External influences, not least of which is Luke Rhinehart’s best-selling book ‘The Dice Man’, have embellished the project with a potential for danger, elements of randomness and public participation to create an exciting and unique adventure.

 

‘Where to Next?’ will be the resounding question whenever a major passage planning choice is to be made. You, the public, by majority vote, will make the larger continental decisions leaving the smaller landfall choices to the throw of a dice!

 

 

Meet the ‘Where To Next’ team

 

                                                          

 

Well, that’s me! I’m Rob Clark (or ‘Bee’ to a few friends and family); Skipper, Navigator, Crew, Marketing Manager, Finance Director, Public Relations Director, Writer, Photographer, Engineer, Chef and Cleaner!

 

And that’s it… just me!

 

I’ve sailed since 1982 when my brother and I started secondary school and joined Mr. Buckle’s Youth Sail Training classes at Burghfield Sailing Club by the M4 near Reading. For the next twenty-six years, my brother and I would go on to own, sail and race a variety of dinghies but to this day, the only race I ever won was back then, in a Tepco dinghy competing in the Berkshire Schools Novices Regatta.

 

I was introduced to yacht sailing in 1986 when I was invited to join my friend Nick Francis and his family on their Westerly Fulmar. The trip took us from the Hamble to Cherbourg, Alderney and Guernsey in the Channel Islands – a route I retraced in 2005 sailing solo on my previous boat ‘Bright Flyer’.

 

My brother Colin and I continued to sail dinghies for several years until, in 1992, we were invited to crew onboard a Gib’Sea 32 in a series of Solent races. I remember those weekends with mixed emotions as, at an impressionable twenty-one years old, I had discovered the relative joys of alcohol and bitterly resented the early, cold and wet Sunday mornings sitting on the windward rail! I think the thrill of dinghy sailing still contradicted the expectation that yachting was what everybody aspired to – wasn’t it? Our dinghy experience had progressed from a Mirror dinghy in 1984 to a 420, Fireball and on to twin trapeze asymmetrics such as the I14 and currently, The Boss.

 

That opinion was to change in 1994 when, while living in Hungerford, I chartered the modest 24’ ‘Ben Nevis’ for an eventful two weeks on the Caledonian Canal. She was only 24’ but for the first time in my life, I was sailing a ‘yacht’, going where I wanted to go, at my own leisurely pace and I wasn’t getting verbal abuse for messing up the spinnaker gybes!

 

That Caledonian trip ended rather unpredictably when, on the last day before taking the boat back to the yard in Inverness, we met the Swedish crew of the beautiful 52’ Cutter ‘Fanny’ at a pub called the ‘Lock Inn’ . They were travelling back from the West Indies, through the canal and across the North Sea to Gothenburg in Sweden. The evening turned predictably into a rather drunken affair and without giving too much thought to the implications, I invited myself on board for the remainder of their trip! Colin took ‘Ben Nevis’ back the next day while I set off for Sweden.

 

Those two weeks, the subsequent unscheduled North Sea crossing and another short sailing trip up the West Coast Swedish archipelago were to permanently change my perspective of yachting.

 

In the summer of 1999, I officially launched my company; Roadshow. Looking back at what I loosely call my ‘career path’, it seems clear to me now that being self-employed had less to do with the entrepreneur in me and maybe a little more to do with my inability to hold down a position of employment!

Reeds Packaging, Thatcham Cardboard Box Designer

21st Century Marketing, Putney Bridge Selling Sky Television

Invader Publishing, Chichester Selling Children’s Books

Inglewood Health Hydro , Nr Newbury Chef / Waiter

Sean’s Kitchen, Lambourn Chef

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Bartender

PT Inti Daksina Tunggal, Jakarta Import / Export (Heavy Industry and Architectural Lighting)

Surtees MAV, Reading Driver / Engineer (Audio-Visual Production)

Surtees MAV, Bristol Sales Manager (Audio-Visual production)

 

For nine years, Roadshow has been pretty consuming. As with any business it’s had its good times and bad but generally, the whole experience has been remarkable. It wasn’t really until I had banked five good years that I started relaxing a little and thinking more about life outside of work. Then, in 2004 following a particularly successful year for Roadshow, I bought ‘Bright Flyer’; a 28’ Trapper 500.  

 

 

I have had many adventures on ‘Bright Flyer’ including a couple of ‘Round the Island Races’ and a single-handed trip to the Channel Islands and the north coast of Brittany. Barely a weekend passes without a trip into the Solent and although she won’t be the boat to take me around the world, she will have been the inspiration for it. She’s for sale now as I try to raise funds for the ‘Where to Next?’ project but I can say with complete sincerity that she will be very sadly missed.

 

In June 2007, having already hatched the basic plan for a round-the-world solo voyage, my brother and I were invited to join Laurent on his Jeanneau Sunkiss 47 from Porto to Lesardrieux on the North coast of Brittany. This was a perfect opportunity to experience the notoriously lumpy seas in the Bay of Biscay and I have to admit – it didn’t disappoint! The Bay graciously served up an exciting mix of gale force winds tempered by periods of complete calm and the company of numerous dolphins and even a whale - exactly as ordered. The boat Zanzibar behaved immaculately and despite a few anxious moments, at no point did I feel that this was something I couldn’t handle by myself.

I enjoy a very active (and tea-total) life of mountain biking, running and sailing (of course!) and at 36 years old, my determination to embark on this rather selfish and life-changing adventure is made tolerably easy by still being single and childless!

Qualifications

19/03/04 RYA Day Skipper

20/08/04 RYA Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore Theory

14/07/07 RYA First Aid

19/07/07 RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Practical

09/11/07 RYA Yachtmaster Ocean 19/01/08 RYA Sea Survival

 

 

The ‘Where To Next’ Concept

 

Put simply, I’m going to sail single-handed around the world but will be embarking on my voyage with absolutely no idea at all where the adventure will take me! If it all goes to plan, I’ll be starting from Wicormarine in Portsmouth on 21st September 2008 and from there, well, who knows!?

 

You, the public will decide each and every onward destination leaving the incidental decisions and landfalls to the throw of the dice. Upon arrival, just as in Luke Reinhart’s book ‘The Dice Man’ I’ll submit up to six carefully selected onward routes to the website’s voting mechanism. Most of them will be sympathetic to the trade winds, currents and the basic principles of circumnavigation. At least one of them, if it wins a majority vote, will be counter-productive. It might be against the prevailing currents or beating into headwinds. It might even reverse the route or force me to navigate through notoriously dangerous seas or make landfall on unwelcoming shores. That decision is yours! At each destination, I’ll launch another seven-day vote and present to you another selection of possible onward routes.

 

For me, the challenge will be to honour the vote unquestioningly and keep moving towards the ultimate goal of making one complete lap of the world. I expect to spend a short time ashore at each destination to allow you all enough time to submit your votes. During that time, a week or so, I’ll document a few of the most significant navigational and cultural points of interest and publish them here on this website along with photos and a ‘live’ graphical representation of my current GPS position.

 

To vote, it is essential that you have registered. It’s free and will automatically subscribe you to the W2N Newsletter.

 

Nobody could predict with any accuracy the likely timescale for this project. After all, it’s entirely dependent on an unpredictable public vote and as such, it could take two, three, maybe four years to complete. Only one thing is certain; the ‘Where to Next?’ project is going to change my life. I’m really not expecting it to be easy and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t apprehensive about certain elements of it. Three or four weeks alone and exposed to the unforgiving swell of the Atlantic cannot be avoided. Night-time coastal navigation is challenging even in familiar waters and presents interesting issues with commercial shipping traffic and of course, sleep deprivation. Heading west from Europe across the Atlantic will be the favoured route but could present problems getting past America should the majority vote favour a southerly route to Cape Horn over the more comfortable Panama Canal. This would be hard enough heading east with the currents but rounding the Horn the wrong way is unthinkable. If it weren’t for the Pacific Ocean, I’d welcome the decision to head off east through the Med and the Red Sea or, better still, around the coast of Africa. As I understand it, and I am of course relying entirely on the experience of others, heading east across the Pacific would be bumpy, cold and thoroughly unpleasant. And of course, besides all the navigational considerations, parts of the South China Sea and the coastal areas of Oman are notorious for their modern-day brigands who, while lacking Captain Jack Sparrow’s charisma and cutlass, favour the rather persuasive automatic rifle as their weapon of choice.

 

So, it’s your choice, your experiences and advice that will determine the route. Be nice…. Please!

 

 

Canasta

 

 

Finally, after months of searching, in April 2008 ‘Canasta’ became the long anticipated w2n yacht and represented a huge boost to the project. She’s a beautiful Grand Soleil 42 designed by the famous German Frers and built in Italy in 1992.

 

If you’ve been following the development of the project in the forum, you’ll know that I’ve chosen Canasta out of hundreds of potential boats ranging from a classic steel hull ketch to a brand new Benetau Oceanis 40. I was impressed by most of the boats reviewed and each had specific strengths and weaknesses. I first saw Canasta in Lymington back in February and described her then as “built from solid granite”. It was only after subsequent online research and conversations with various people that I realized just how pertinent that remark was. The Grand Soleil shares many of her design features with the eminently capable range of Nautor Swan yachts. It’s no surprise then that German Frers was the common element in both. Evidence of this can be seen in her beautiful sweeping hull lines gracefully tapering back to an elegant transom. No ‘sugar scoop’, no soppy diving platforms – the Grand Soleil was designed to cross oceans quickly, safely and in style. Above, the similarities are evident too. Teak laid from bow to stern with broad, uncluttered decks. The gentle unbroken slope of the coaming merging seamlessly with the coachroof and forward to meet the deck at a purposeful, arrow-like point, gives her a slightly sinister profile. Her huge wheel, eight Lewmar winches, fully battened mainsail and her removable inner stay coupled with thoughtful and manageable control line routing will make her a joy to sail – to sail hard. And then, in the rough stuff, her marquee sized sprayhood will make life a little more comfortable as she plunges through the waves. Below, she’s in spectacular condition. With just two cabins, she capitalises on the remaining space by boasting a huge saloon, a comfortable and functional nav station and a spacious ‘L shaped’ galley. There’s room to sleep seven people as the saloon converts into a double and a single berth to complement the two double en-suite cabins. Suddenly, the questionable economic reasoning behind selling the house and the business is clear to see. ‘Canasta’ is everything I had hoped, at what I believe was a reasonable price that leaves a comforting amount of money in the budget for a few essential items, a few personal touches and of course, enough left over for a rainy day!

 

Sponsorship

 

There are exciting sponsorship opportunities throughout this entire project. I would consider a title sponsor and will be approaching some of the higher profile companies directly. I would still invite appropriate companies to sponsor specific areas of the project though and will ensure that each one is given suitable media exposure. Branding on the boat, my wet-weather clothing and home page banners on the website are all available for sponsorship.

 

I’m hoping that the sailing press will follow the project closely and have already had interest from a few of the UK mainstream publications. I will be submitting editorial and photographs to these magazines periodically and will be conscious of my obligation to the sponsors at every opportunity.

 

I have already started work on a book to document the whole ‘Where to Next?’ experience. Excerpts will be published on the website but I’ve already had interest from at least one publisher. They read the first draft of the opening chapters and recognized immediately the broad public appeal. The book will include details not just of the voyage itself but of the concept development, the struggle to raise funds and the turbulent emotional journey to the start line. Any financial support raised through sponsorship will contribute to the success of the project and as such, could be appropriately credited in the book, the website, the magazine editorial and even on the boat itself.

 

 

The Book

 

The W2N challenge is simple – to make one complete lap of the world. That’s straight forward enough. The route, the conditions, the hospitality, the navigational hazards and the potential for adventure will remain a mystery, even to me, until it actually happens. It cannot possibly be predicted with any certainty. Shortly after conceiving the idea, I thought it might be fun to write an account of the campaign and in fact, started documenting every decision of consequence, every pivotal moment and a candid insight into my fears and dreams. Just as the Where to next project has evolved over the past year, so too has what I now rather presumptuously call ‘The Book’!

Here you’ll find a few periodically updated excerpts from the book.

 

“…My voyage will not be a race. It is unlikely to even come close to the Southern Ocean or Cape Horn . Far from being ‘non-stop’, I fully expect to visit the shores of many obscure, fascinating and culturally diverse lands and will stay for as long as I am welcome. I will not break any records and do not seek international fame and fortune. This isn’t about ‘finding my true self’. Nor is it a search for some kind of enlightenment or epiphany. This is nothing more than the story of an unexceptional hobby sailor staking his livelihood on an unpredictable global adventure. “

 

“The plan rather arrogantly sticks two fingers up to the commonly held (and not incorrect) belief that the way to guarantee a financially buoyant and fulfilling old age is to keep healthy and invest sensibly. Few would argue that a house, a solid career and generous pension contributions throughout our working lives is the formula for old age security. Well there’s an interesting paradox. Buoyant and fulfilling, to me, could be sailing around the world unburdened by the shackles of a ‘conventional’ life. It’s harnessing opportunities to experience the sights, sounds and smells of distant cultures with naïve energy and a thirst for adventure. Emptying my pockets each night into the old age fund is terribly sensible I’m sure but if I’m honest, I’d question which I fear most; growing old, poor and bitter about squandering my pension with selfish recklessness or growing old, wealthy and bitter about being too dependent on others or burdened by responsibilities to realise a lifetime’s dream. Which would you choose? …“

 

“…Somehow, in this global age of ‘bought experiences’ and low-cost international travel where the doors of opportunity are flung wide open, I struggle to imagine how any of us can truly expect to impress the grandchildren! I’ve never fought in a war and I hope I never do. I’ve never had to experience rationing, evacuation or economic freefall and someone’s already invented space travel. So can you imagine… “Grandad, Grandad, tell us about when you were young…..” they’d ask. “Well… um….. well, I ran a quite successful business and…. Um…. Oh, I very nearly sailed around the world!” I’d answer knowing very well that this would deliver a crushing blow to their pre-conceptions of ‘the good ol’ days’. The days long before unscrupulous carbon footprint and transport taxes forced us all to the high seas! I fear their internet and TV fuelled encyclopaedic global awareness and desensitisation to anything that was once ‘epic’, might just warrant something a little more dynamic. I’d have to lie! “Well now laddie…(‘cos that’s how grandads talk isn’t it!?)… when I was a young man, not long after piloting my ARC-170 Starfighter to glorious victory against the terrifying Count Dooku and General Grievous in the Clone Wars, I became Emperor of Dxun, one of the four moons of Onderon...” (I just know someone’s going to correct me on these scandalous technical inaccuracies!) I’m almost embarrassed to admit that the inspiration for the voyage can then, in a small way be attributed to my insecurities. I mean, I obviously only played a very small and insignificant role in the Clone Wars of Dxon but seriously….”

 

“…Now, I’m a relatively intelligent chap. I know when I’m being manipulated and in my experience, that’s only ever been by girlfriends and mountain bike salesmen. So, it wasn’t entirely within the rules when Nick surreptitiously placed in front of me, open on a page emblazoned with an achingly beautiful glossy photograph, the Oceanis 40 brochure.

“Well that’s no more expensive than the Hanse” he said with the look of a fisherman as his line twitches and the float bobs below the surface.

It would seem, and I’ve turned the numbers over and over all afternoon, that from two very different financial perspectives, his suggestion was not without foundation As a commercial venture, W2N Global Ltd could claim back the VAT bringing the net cost of the Oceanis, fitted out liberally to my demanding personal specification, down to £114,000. Okay, that’s more than I had budgeted originally but would she be a suitable boat to take me around the world? Conceivably. Would she make me happy? Well, with her teak decks, dark blue hull, modern Italian interior styling and a perfect single-handed cockpit layout - definitely! Then, in a cruel, devious and cleverly calculated effort to pray on a vulnerable soul and close the deal there and then…

“Would you be able to take delivery in France ?” Nick asked.

The reason for the question wasn’t, as I first thought, an assumption that the deal was done. It was in relation to a rather tempting little incentive Mr Sarkozy’s government has created to encourage investment in one of France’s most profitable industries; yacht manufacture. This is where it gets complicated…”

 

“…I’m not one to tread carefully around ladders or avoid stepping on the cracks in the pavement. I’ll very happily climb aboard leading with my left foot to set sail on a Friday and may not even have placed a lucky coin under the mast. On board I will welcome women and plants and will whistle cheerfully, talk about pigs and if, by chance, there’s wine aboard, there’s less chance of it getting poured over the deck than there is of it being drunk by me… and I’m tea-total! Okay, so my volume control will always be on an even number but I like to think that this infectious peculiarity can be attributed more to a hint of OCD than to a ‘suspicious mind’. However, while it’s easy to moc k c ommon seafaring folklore and suspicions, the catastrophe that was to be my trip to Greece in search of a bargain has got me thinking. The spirit of the dice that has moulded the very essence of the w2n project would never permit this protracted quest to find the perfect boat. And yet, while the old Rob looks at every option with a methodical, thoughtful and calculated reserve, the new Rob, the one I’ve yet to fully embrace, urges “throw the dice”. So, where options exist and choices are to be made, the dice could arbitrarily make the decision based (depending on your faith or philosophical belief) on divine intervention, fate or spiritual guidance. You could of course argue that the dice is simply a cheap gimmick devoid of any ethereal influence employed here merely to augment an otherwise unexceptional and self-indulgent cruise around the world! And you’d be entitled to your opinion. Either way, there will be those who share my belief that only getting as far as Zurich before being forced to return to London due to snow storms in Athens the likes of which have not been experienced there for thirty seven years was perhaps a sign!? Was my boat search destined to end here?

Rob Melotti from PBO magazine insightfully wrote “Chance alone will dictate success or failure”.

Of the current contenders, a Grand Soleil 42, a Bavaria 44, a Beneteau Oceanis 411 ‘Celebration’ and of course the unfathomably gorgeous, budget-busting, spanking brand new Oceanis 40, only one made me tingle with excitement. No prizes for guessing which one but was it simply the prospect of balancing on an economic tightrope in pursuit of this ‘trophy’ that turned my legs to jelly? Perhaps. Or was it the emotional civil war in my head as the spirit of the dice and an intuitive longing for an equitably sensible solution met face to face? …”

 

”…Perhaps my irrational behaviour was fuelled by the pressures of waiting but it was during those days that I turned my attentions rather clumsily to promoting the project. I was haunted by the total lack of participation in the w2n online forum and the failure of all but a select few to sign up for the Newsletter. There had even been some media interest from Yachting Monthly and a short news article published in the April edition but still only a couple of people registered an interest. An editorial published in Asia ’s sail-world.com yielded just a couple more. The forum, where in my head I’d pictured the world’s amassed sailing fraternity chatting, debating, arguing and marvelling at the ingenuity of the project, had just three participants; me, my brother Colin and my good friend Lexi . I’d started several threads relating to the search for a boat, a couple of fun test votes, numerous requests for advice and a few pictures and yet just two posts, two short token affirmations of my very existence, were not written by me. So, as they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Under the pseudonym ‘Buzz Lightyear’ (don’t ask), I devised a devilishly cunning wheeze. I posted a thread on the Sailing Anarchy web forum under the ‘Cruising Anarchy’ heading entitled ‘Where to next? Could be interesting?’ In it, I asked if anyone had seen the article in sail-world.com in which this bloke Rob Clark was going to sail single-handed around the world guided (or misguided) by the voting public. It went on to enforce my anonymity by questioning this Rob bloke’s blind faith in the integrity of the majority.

Ok, so maybe my first mistake was choosing Sailing Anarchy as the medium for my deceit but it is a popular website. It’s not known for holding back on the expression of polarised opinion – and in that respect, it didn’t disappoint. Not in quantity but in the literary quality of the first response.

“What's with all those idjits trying to figure out yet another silly way to get sponsored? You know what, in about 5 years time I want to do a circumnavigation by reading the intestines of the fish I will catch underway. I'll set up a bank account now and you can start sponsoring pronto ... that ok?”

 

Albatross

Hmmm, it took a while to see the funny side being as how I was the target of this mirth but with hindsight, it did make me chuckle… eventually! He’d quoted the ‘sponsorship’ page in the w2n website in which I suggested that the project might offer some mutually beneficial sponsorship opportunities.

Then this from another subscriber…

“Gee could this be a Jr. 1000 day cruise?”

 

Ezzspike

This appeared to be a disparaging comparison with the story of Reid Stowe and his girlfriend Soanya Ahmad who, amidst a flood of criticism and ridicule from the Sailing Anarchy community, set sail in April 2007 on what was generally predicted to be a doomed one thousand day non-stop cruise around the world. The dignified response would have been to retort with an educated and impassioned diatribe highlighting the financial and personal risks, the intriguing social and psychological experimentation and the Public Relations subtleties of engaging non-sailing folk in our noble sport. I would go on to describe Rob Clark as an ambassador, an adventurer and a man of great courage and charisma. My tormentors would be soundly shamed, belittled by Buzz Lightyear who would then, like Spartacus, stand and proudly shout “I am Rob Clark!”

Of course, what I actually did was nothing. With remarkable restraint, I chose to say nothing and allow the thread to get swamped by some really serious sailing issues like “Pressure Cookers, What works good and what do you cook with them?” or “Porta pottie, Oder [sic]”. So, ask the assembled sailing community to comment on a rooky single-handed circumnavigation and you’ll get two derogatory responses. Ask it why your toilet smells and you’ll be swamped with over twenty thoughtful and well structured offers of advice! Me – bitter!?.…”

 

“…Well, two mind-numbingly tiresome days of packing later I had filled the garage to bursting point and perilously ferried the essentials to the boat on my tiny inflatable dinghy! This was to be one of those occasions when, for now at least, the novelty of living in the middle of a river had a certain entertainment value that I was quite prepared to tolerate. I couldn’t help wondering though just how long that would last. The trade-off of course will always be the view and the tranquillity as the sun rises over the Meon Valley and the South Downs each morning interrupted only by a silhouette of gently rocking masts. So, having stowed all my personal belongings with surprising ease, I set about finishing the electronics installation in time for the race. Gavin, a thoroughly affable and softly-spoken online lingerie salesman whose other, bafflingly complementary interest; Technology Afloat supplied much of the electronic navigation equipment, came aboard to help finish the installation. Between us, we finally got the rather dated but nonetheless functional Magnavox MX100 GPS to talk to the navigation software. In that precise moment as the south coast revealed itself in infinite detail with the outline of a tiny boat indicating my exact position in the world, my ‘paper-chart’ navigational skills were theoretically archived under ‘Might still be useful one day… maybe!’ Upgrading the VHF radio was a simple matter and with that done, Canasta was race-fit. Her skipper, I fear, wasn’t!

 

At this stage, although plans for my adventure were developing nicely, I was still working as a Production Manager for Roadshow. And so, with predictably bad timing, I found myself working on race-eve, at an event in London that had denied me any sleep and scuppered any chance of getting out on the water for pre-race testing. Nothing unusual about that. It was certainly unhelpful but not at all unusual. If there was ever a definitive moment at which I was able to put the impact of my plans into perspective though, it was that day as I watched out of the corner of my eye as one of my colleagues browsed the W2N website. It’s hard to explain but in the context of a normal day’s work, watching Martin navigate unprompted with genuine interest around the site, I was momentarily struck not just by the questionable absurdity of my situation but by the imminent reality of it. The words were mine and the pictures were of me but here I was, now, doing the same job that had consumed me for nine years watching someone else read the introduction to an unpredictable, impulsive and entirely random adventure that loomed just three short months away. There it was - my future - committed.

 

When I’m on the boat, in a sailing context, I have a complete and utter faith in the success of the project. I work methodically through a preparation process systematically ticking off items on the to-do list gratifyingly faster than I add them. In my head, I am The Dice Man; destined to sail around the world, single-handed, guided only by providence and it barely feels odd at all. I’m pretty much ready to go too so it really shouldn’t have bothered such as it did but at that moment, doubt crept in…”