The North-West Passage - the goal of the expedition

During a season, the two extreme athletes, Mike Fuchs and Philipp Benda will cope with the famous Northwest passage in the Arctic Ocean with a small inflatable sailing catamaran. To cover the long distance of the passage – roundabout 2000 kilometers from Baffin Island to Prudhoe Bay - they use a knockdown travel catamaran by approximately 5 meters length. With its immediate proximity to the North Pole, the passage was long impassable for decades and left many expedition fail. Such as those of Sir James Franklin, whose two ships HMS Erebus and HMS terror were detected until 2014 and 2016. Due to the rising temperatures, the passage was reported in 2008 for the first time "ice".

The boat

A trip catamaran is a very small demountable boat, which essentially consists of a flexible boot skin and a detachable sailing rig. The challenge with this small catamaran that fits in the trunk of a car to be against is to resist wind and weather, especially against the wetness and cold. The inflatable boat in any way is not comparable with a sea-sailing yacht. It offers very little space and no protection against water of overcoming  waves. Always wet.

The motivation

During this expedition spectacular images should be created that hold not only the athletes, but especially the awesome forces of the Arctic Ocean. The athletes move completely independently and without an accompanying boat. All equipment, food and water is stowed on the boat. Navigation is with compass, GPS and maps. The duration of the expedition is set to about 30 to 40 days in summer 2017. Currently the two adventurers are going to test the boat and the equipment  in order to be prepared for the expedition. Videos has been taken by a german TV-Station already.

The Sponsor

During their expedition, Mike Fuchs and Philipp Benda put on Aquapac. Their personal and equipment of the extreme athlete is stowed in our waterproof panniers and camera bags. The electronic devices such as radios, GPS or smartphones come in our special waterproof bags such as VHF cases or the Smartphone Pocket. The handling of the devices is guaranteed at all times by the transparent TPU-Foil. The bags are submersible up to ten meters. What necessarily should not be tried out in the summer in the Northwest Passage...

More Infos: www.philippbenda.com und www.mikefuchs-fotografie.de