Mingming ll and her Maiden Voyage into the Arctic 23 Nov 2014

More than fifty members of RCYC settled into the comfort of their chairs in the warmth of the yacht club to watch Roger Taylor’s latest venture into the Arctic, the maiden voyage of Mingming II.

Roger’s approach to boat-building is always of the ‘low-tech’ variety, demonstrated by his purchase of an Achilles 24 most of us would have written off as a total wreck, a cut-down aluminium lamp-post as his mast and an uninsulated cupboard as the fridge. But not when it comes to the sails – the carbon fibre battens used for his latest junk rig design were definitely ‘high-tech’!

The video helped us to share the experience, with a guided tour of the spartan interior but he must have been warm because he was only wearing stripey socks on his feet…

Through his 360° observation post we viewed the majestic sight of the glacier on Jan Mayen, the pilot whales who kept him company, the terns and kittiwakes and the minke whales who were too close for comfort…

Mingming II left Whitehills on the 4th July, registered 79°N on the 30th and returned safely on the 28th August, having completed 3332 miles in 55 days.