Laivina has been raced as well as used to sail round the world
Originally from Noosa Heads in Queensland, Australia, Peter Freeman finally became a Canadian citizen in the 1990s, but not before he’d completed a non-stop circumnavigation in his 32ft sloop from Victoria on Canada’s West coast via the great Southern Ocean Capes. This remarkable voyage was made in the mid-1980s, in a different world from today’s high tech yachts.
Navigation was entirely by astro, self-steering by wind alone and his yacht Laivina was of modest length and moderate design, designed for real-world seafaring, not for show. The way she survived the knockdown described here makes you shudder to think what might have happened to a less seaworthy boat.
Freeman’s book, Cape Horn Birthday, is a grand read from beginning to end. Like many solo sailors, he is something of a philosopher, but by trade he is a computer programmer whose rigorous mental approach shines out.
We join him in a Southern Ocean storm that has risen rapidly. According to his most recent sights, which he has good reason to take with a pinch of salt, is too close for comfort to the remote island of Kerguélen, but his serious concern is the Île Solitaire, a pinnacle rock. This lies between him and Kerguélen. Anyone who has navigated by astro alone in bad weather will understand his concerns. Today, we take it as read that we
