The Skipper Rickard Trophy was presented to Brian Black by Roger Rickard. He used excerpts from the following:

DETAILS OF BRIAN BLACK’S 2005 TRIP

BACKGROUND

Brian has skippered a number of adventurous voyages to arctic areas around the N Atlantic, in his two boats: Cuillin (formerly called Dingo) and in his present boat Caelan. The list of such trips:

• Norway, Bear Island (Bjørnøya) and Lofoten Islands in 1997
• Faeroes, Iceland and Greenland (Kap Dalton) in 1999
• Norway, Bear Island through to the north of Svalbard (Spitzbergen) in 2001
• Iceland and Greenland (Scoresbysund) this year 2005.

All these trips have been intensely challenging, not only in a physical sense, but in terms of the commitment by everyone on board to make the expedition a success, which they undoubtedly have been. Testament to that is the fact that Brian has been able to make a number of very successful documentaries about the people and wildlife of these remote regions. But perhaps Brian’s most important achievement of all has been to take like minded people to inaccessible and dramatic places that otherwise they would never have seen, even in their wildest dreams – such adventures will live forever in the memories of his crews.

CAELAN TO GREENLAND IN 2005

This has probably been the most challenging of all the expeditions, both in terms of its ambition, and in the conditions experienced. The intention was to explore islands in the far north-east coast of Greenland lying near a headland called Cape Hold-with-Hope; a land mass that has only received a handful of human visitors in its entire history.

The expedition set out in June for Iceland, but had to divert for engine work into Stornoway – the problems thankfully proving minor. Heading out from there, Caelan experienced severe weather after several days, fighting a gale to the south of Iceland which ripped apart two sails. They put into the Westmann Islands for rest and repairs, before proceeding to the ‘Horn’ of Iceland in the far north-west, to the isolated but beautiful little town of Isafjord. Here there was a crew change, and from there they embarked for Greenland.

Wind (at times lack of it, at other times in too generous proportion) challenged them, necessitating more fuel use than anticipated. They therefore opted to put in to Scoresbysund further south for refuelling. This they only achieved by punching Caelan through dense accumulations of small icebergs (growlers). At Scoresbysund they learned that, probably due to climate warming, far more ice is drifting down the Greenland coast, and their original intentions were virtually impossible.

They therefore explored the expanses of Scoresbysund instead, with its islands, ice, and Inuit folk. Finally they left to return to Iceland, working their way back along its west coast and putting back into the Westmann Islands for shelter in severe weather. After several days, finding a window of opportunity in the weather they put out for the last return leg of the voyage, only to find the weather deteriorating once more. Conditions worsened, and somewhere between south east Iceland and Scotland they were hammered by Force 11 winds which blew for about 48 hours, requiring them to drift under bare poles, battened down and crew sheltering below with conditions so bad on deck it was impossible to distinguish between sea and sky.

Finally, they made it to Stornoway, and thence to Strangford and the Quoile Yacht Club once more. Skipper, crew, and Caelan all battered but grateful for the experience, and throughout those arctic waters, as in all the earlier expeditions, the QYC pennant flying proudly from the shrouds….its a wonder there’s any of it left.

Bob Brown, 19 Sept 2005.

(Very regrettably I had to pull out of this expedition due to work commitments. I was present on all the earlier ones)