ICOYC News
From Monaco to Punta del Este to Antarctica!
YACHT CLUB PUNTA DEL ESTE & YACHT CLUB DE MONACO
In November, Yacht Club Punta del Este will receive Boréal 47 sailing vessel Sir-Ernst for a visit and change of crew. The sailboat, which has the support and sponsorship of the Yacht Club de Monaco, is voyaging to the South Pole and is expected to layover at Punta del Este during the week of 11-18 November
Yacht Club de Monaco reports that the Boréal 47 Sir Ernst is on an expedition to the Antarctic. Departing on 15 September, 2021 the vessel and crew were en route to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, from where they will begin the long descent to Ushuaia. “The idea is to leave for the Antarctic on 5 January 2022. By then we will have done five stages during which there will be crew changeovers,” explains François Miribel, the boat’s new owner. On board is Yacht Club de Monaco member Fabrice Papazian who joins a crew of sailors all passionate about adventure and the White Continent.
Following in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who explored Antarctica, for her first voyage Sir Ernst is heading to that remote region. Named in honour of the Anglo-Irish Shackleton, one of the most famous and iconic of the Antarctic explorers, the Boréal 47 regularly takes on sailors who love this region. This time she will be sailing in the wake of Commander Charcot, whose expeditions were often supported by Prince Albert I. “I wanted this boat to continue sailing to the ends of the earth,” says François Miribel. The “Marguerite Bay” project is named after this bay on the west of the Antarctic Peninsula which is named in honour of the Commander Charcot’s wife.
The crew is planning to place a plaque at Cap Albert-de-Monaco on the southwestern tip of Antwerp Island in the Antarctic’s Palmer archipelago as a tribute to Prince Albert I. In 2022, the Principality will celebrate the centenary of his passing.