Unique Research Opportunities in 2020-21

What makes this voyage a "unique" opportunity for you?

• A scholarship place for Ocean, Climate or Justice candidate
There will be a place for someone special on each of our Polar and sub-polar Expedition legs. Could be a PhD Marine biology student or a Climate, Ecology or Social Justice student or activist who will bring their own perspective to these legs.

• You can do your research on the world's first-ever voyage to...
As far as we can tell, nobody has ever attempted to sail, in consecutive summers, from the world's most Southerly city, Ushuaia behind Cape Horn, to the most Northerly, Hammerfest, 400 miles north of Norway's Arctic circle.

• It's equal opportunity for men and women

What sort of Research are you interested in?

This will be an almost unrivalled opportunity for you to devise and run your own research on a slow moving vessel that will be travelling thousands of miles in sub-Antarctic and in Arctic waters. The route has been chosen to coincide as far as possible with the migration routes of the great whales at the times they will be making their annual journeys from the Antarctic and to the Arctic.

Marine life around Cape Horn and, more particularly on and around South Georgia, is of particular interest to many Marine biologists as the conditions of their existence change with Global Warming and Climate Change. Is this the field of your research?

Ocean currents and temperature It has been found that Antarctic ocean currents have accelerated with the increase in sea temperatures. Is that your area of expertise

Arctic ice Probably the area most affected on earth by warming temperatures. The Arctic, and the way it is being affected by this rapid change, is therefore at the fore-front of concern for Climate-change activists. Are you interested in documenting, or maybe even filming the northern oceans as these world-changing events unfold?

These high-latitude legs are going to be challenging!

What to expect:
While this voyage will cover a wide range of sailing, all the research scholarships are on the high-latitude "Expedition level" legs. You will not need to be as experienced as a full crew member, but you will be expected to help crew the yacht on a watch-keeping basis. So, to put that in perspective, the Full Crew Members will be expected to be "an adventurer with some sailing experience and a track record in difficult/dangerous terrain...". You will need to be at least conversant with sailing yachts and be prepared for the conditions on board.

Conditions on board
You will be living in a small space with 5 other people. It will often be damp and cold. The motion of the yacht - even though she is 60 feet long - will often be uncomfortable and sea-sickness is obviously a problem. It will not be helpful to you or the crew if you are not able to manage these conditions. We recommend Stugeron as our first choice of sea-sickness remedy, but you would need to speak to your doctor.


Training:
We are expecting to run training in 2020 though this will not be as comprehensive as the training training legs we ran in Oct/Nov 2019. These were Sydney-Hobart direct and Hobart -Invercargill South Island NZ.

As well as Southern hemisphere training, we are arranging for a sailing school in Ireland/UK and another in the USA to run offshore training for Northern hemisphere members. Pricing for these training events are being calculated at this moment.

Provisional Costs

The Ocean Sailing Club is a not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to enable as many people as possible to live their dream - so this voyage, like all of ours, must pay for all its costs.

The estimated probable cost of this expedition will be between £75,000 and £100,000. As a non-profit club, we ask Challenge Crew to pay a contribution for their leg. Currently that is worked out as £350 Challenge Membership - entitles you to join up to two legs - and then £72 per day for your 'on-board contribution' per leg.

Each Scholarship will be between 50% and 100% of the 'on-board contribution'

Depending on funding, we expect to be able to waive between 50%-100% of the 'on-board contributions'. So, to give you an idea, the full on-board contribution per leg:

- Cape Horn Expedition: 28 day leg from NZ to Ushuaia expected cost £2026 (scholarship £1013 or less)
- Shackleton Memorial Expedition: 42 days Ushuaia - S. Georgia and Rio, £3039 (scholarship £1520 or less)
- Norse Saga Expedition: 28 day leg from Dublin - Faroe Is and Hammerfest, £2026 (scholarship £1013 or less)


    • These figures include accommodation, meals and use of the yacht for your research.

    • We are actively looking for funding to reduce your on-board contribution to £0.

Take up the challenge.

For a Scholarship place, you will need to get in touch with us and discuss the sort of research you think will be best suited to your area of expertise. We will judge each request on its merits and ask our Marine Studies adviser to assess it for outcomes and for methodology.

It would be helpful to receive your thoughts in a short synopsis. But before you start racking your brains too much, give us an informal call or send an email to chat about who you are and what makes you tick.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Peter Edington
"Ends of the Earth Challenge" Leader