“It’s the little things, like not one drop of condensation on the windows, that is the biggest testament to its impressive Vripack design”
Beothuk:
Beothuk became the third Doggersbank and the 163rd vessel to successfully navigate the hostile Northwest Passage. Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and less than 1,200 miles from the North Pole, the frigid body of water remains one of the greatest nautical encounters on the planet.
Captained by Liam Devlin, the journey was a long-held ambition for Beothuk’s owner, who acquired the Kuipers-built, Vripack-designed yacht in 2011 for the purpose of doing the trip.
“I had done around five winter expeditions to the Arctic in the previous years, hunting and dog sledding with the Inuit on icy tundra,” says the owner. “I developed a real interest in the area and people and wanted to experience it by sea.”
Those earlier visits gave him an invaluable appreciation for the unpredictability of the region. During his first trip to Baffin Island, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, he spent weeks on the frozen sea ice. At one point, he and three Inuit men were cast adrift on a piece of ice that unexpectedly broke away. “We went floating off into the ocean where we stayed for four days until the wind blew us back,” he says. “It was alarming, but I knew I was in safe hands. Much like yachting, the key is to do it with the right people.”
The journey
Following the footsteps
Their time in Greenland delivered real highs, including soaring icebergs and the chance to reconnect with old friends in Resolute. The inside passage on the Canadian side stood out for its magnificent glacial display, while the Bellot Strait, which separates Somerset Island from the Boothia Peninsula, produced ethereal ice sculptures. Even encounters with past travellers came to the fore when they visited an old Hudson Bay Company trading post, well-stocked with tinned food and supplies.
After covering 8,800 nautical miles between July and October, they disembarked in Seattle.
“A journey of that length requires a lot of oil changes, but Beothuk had sufficient oil in the tanks, sufficient dirty oil storage and sufficient black water storage, too. It’s the little things, like not one drop of condensation on the windows, that is the biggest testament to its impressive Vripack design,” he says. “I was transfixed on following in the footsteps of prior generations and it was so nice to take Beothuk (named after the indigenous people who lived on the island of Newfoundland) to its namesake. Most exciting of all, though, was the chance to use the yacht for what it was designed to do.”
