Trousers Ablaze – And They’re Full of Shit

According to Wikipedia, between 1973 and 1976 Reid Stowe traveled the Atlantic making two crossings, one of which was solo. The vessel was a 27 foot catamaran that Stowe had constructed at his family beach house in North Carolina. According to Wikipedia, “The catamaran was, at the time, the smallest vessel to navigate the North Atlantic.” The reference Wikipedia sites is an interview conducted by Harold Channer on July 31, 2003 and which aired August 4, 2003. In that interview, Mr. Stowe himself states, “... I sailed the smallest boat across the Atlantic Ocean…”

This Stowe cat was not even close to being the smallest vessel to navigate the Atlantic. There were at least 20 boats that made the Atlantic crossing before 1973. That’s a very conservative number because it only includes boats under 20 feet in length who sailed point to point across the ocean – it doesn’t include circumnavigators who simply crossed the Atlantic as part of a larger effort or even - yes - rowboats. A 20’ boat crossed from Ireland to Boston as early as 1870. In 1965 Robert Manry sailed from Falmouth, MA to Falmouth England in the 13.5 foot Tinkerbelle. That’s HALF THE SIZE of Mr. Stowes “smallest boat to navigate the North Atlantic”.

What record could he hold, then? Smallest boat to make the trip both ways? Nope – that honor belongs to Fredrick Norman & George P. Thomas who sailed from Gloucester to Cowes and back again in 1880/81. Oh – and their boat was a strapping 16 feet long.

Could he hold the record for the smallest catamaran to make the trip? Or the smallest to cross in a self made boat? No and no.. In 1957 a gentleman named Jim Wharram crossed in a 23 foot catamaran with a couple of German ladies in a boat he built for about $420.

Oh, and regarding his Antarctica Expedition, in this same interview Mr. Stowe says of that trip – “It’s really dangerous, that’s why no one had done it”. In fact, over 70 private boats had made the trip before the Anne did in 1986 including Americans Robert and Nancy Griffith and their son Reid (coincidence). In 1970/71, fifteen years before the Anne dropped anchor for a beer and a barbecue and then skedaddled back to warmer waters; the Griffith family had already circumnavigated Antarctica.

Not first boat, smallest boat or even smallest catamaran to cross the Atlantic once or twice. As far as the Antarctic trip, they had sold out of the “been there-done that” T-shirts before the thought of traveling to the bottom of the world had even crossed Stowe's mind.

Being very generous, then, here are the results:

• Atlantic Small Boat Navigation – 20^th Place
• Race to Antarctica – 70^th Place
• Bull Shit Artistry – 1^st Place

Come on up and get your Pickle Dish.

References:

For supporting data, I relied heavily on two sources. For the Atlantic crossings I relied most on Microcruising.com section “Famous Small Boats” found here http://www.microcruising.com/famoussmallboats.htm. A comprehensive list of Antarctic trips is found on a page titled Antarctic Sailing Chronology (Yacht Cruises to Antarctica) http://www.sy-lundi.de/chronology.html. While I used these two sites as primary sources, I verified all the details contained herein with other sources and can provide them on request. Here’s the Interview with Stowe and Channer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkK3CS6qAo4. If you’d like a list of times where I culled important information, feel free to e-mail me with your request (nobody should have to suffer through the whole hour).