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Ella in the Artic - HYC talk 21st March

Published 11:43 on 4 Apr 2025

What an extraordinary young lady Ella is!

Lets start with some background she gave us early last year as she was preparing to set sail for the Artic. Yeva is her 38 foot, 1978 built steel hulled yacht which was quite a challenge to acquire and even more so to find sponsorship for and get ready for this enormous challenge. (See write up from her previous talk for more details - Ella talk February 2024)

Her mission: to achieve the first solo circumnavigation of the artic circle, which commences at 66.5N, to highlight climate change, promote sustainability and scientific research.

The fact that her sails from Jeckells and ropes from Amare are all recycled demonstrates her commitment to sustainability. Sustainable technology is in use onboard, such as the towed water generator, wind and solar power and her aim to minimise use of carbon based fuels. Yeva will also be fitted with cameras for filming the challenge with the aim of making a documentary on her return.

Two charities very close to her heart which Ella supports are Polar Bears International and Ocean Conservancy. The profits from auctioning Yeva at the end of her voyage will be donated between them. To quote Ella "the arctic needs help".

Ella set off on her trial voyage in May last year, which saw her reach Longyearbyen, an exploratory trip to see how the boat would perform. Like all sailing trips, the unexpected happened and she experienced steering failure, flooding and needed to replace the bilge pumps on more than one occasion.

Her calm and determined manner comes across as she explains these events, which most of us would find more than challenging in the Solent with a crew, never mind single handed in sub-zero2383 temperatures and at some points of the journey, in waves of 5.5m high!

At the end of her well-attended talk, Ella answered questions from the audience and kindly offered us the opportunity to go on board and take a look round.

As Ella makes her final preparations for the circumnavigation and reflects on the learnings from last year, she can be found living and working on her boat at Haslar Marina.

As we enjoy the summer in the Solent, we will be thinking of Ella as she embarks on this incredible challenge. For more information and to see the live tracking of Yeva on the voyage you can go to: https://ellainthearctic.co.uk/