Profiles of Pelagic's Skippers

Skip Novak, born in 1952 is currently based in Cape Town South Africa. He is best known for his participation in four Whitbread Round the World Yacht Races since 1977. In that year at the age of 25 he navigated the British Cutter Kings Legend to 2nd place.

Skippering the Independent Endeavour in 1979, he won the Parmelia Race from Plymouth to Freemantle Australia.

He skippered Simon Le Bon's Drum in the 1985/86 Whitbread Race coming 3rd. He wrote a book entitled "One Watch at a Time" about this experience and it was published simultaneously in England (David and Charles) and in America (W. W. Norton).

In 1989 he was project manager and skipper of the Fazisi, the first Soviet entry in the Whitbread Race, and he chronicled this watershed event in his book "Fazisi - The Joint Venture" which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in Britain.

Wishing to combine his mountaineering skills (New Zealand and the Alps, expeditions to East Africa, Sikkim, Nepal, Patagonia, South Georgia and Antarctica) with sailing he built the expedition yacht Pelagic in Southampton in 1987 and has since spent every season since in Antarctic waters, many of which were leading combined climbing and filming projects based from his two vessels.

He is frequently asked to comment on high latitude adventuring and ocean sailing by radio, TV and print media and is a regular contributor to many sailing magazines worldwide, including several stints as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph in London.

Briefly returning to grand prix ocean racing on large multi-hulls, in 1997 he navigated the French catamaran Explorer to a sailing record in the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu. In 1998 he co-skippered Explorer with Bruno Peyron breaking the sailing record from Yokohama to San Francisco. In January to March 2001 he co-skippered the 33 meter French catamaran Innovation Explorer to a second place in the millennium non-stop, no limits circumnavigation The Race.

In 2002/2003 Skip project managed the construction of his new Pelagic Australis, a 23 meter purpose built expedition vessel for high latitude sailing in order to augment the charter operations of the original Pelagic. Launched in September of 2003 she is the flag ship for Pelagic Expeditions.

Stewart Richardson and Jessica Hay

Born in Norfolk in 1978 Stewart has been on the water in one form or another since the age of 4. His sailing carer began in Australia where he was a sailing instructor for one of the industries leading schools. Whilst ‘Down Under’ Stewart spent much of his time offshore on the East coast training students and racing with private owners – This included the 2004 Sydney – Hobart race.

Following this 4-year period in Australia he returned to the UK and started work as a race Skipper for Sir Chay Blyth’s Challenge Business where he won the final series of races operated by Challenge Business – The Transat 2006.

Since Joining Pelagic in 2006 Stewart has run numerous expeditions to our remote destinations with his partner Jessica as 1st Mate.

Jessica has been sailing since she started a leisure and tourism course at Hartpury College. Following this Jessica worked as a sailing instructor in Europe before turning to nursing. For the following 4 years she worked in various rehabilitation and assessment units for learning disabilities and mental health. In 2004 Jess went to Australia to continue with her sail training.

Since the summer of 2005 Jess competed in Cowes week enjoying great success as part of ‘The Project’ racing team. This success continued on to see them winning in Cork and the Class nationals several times.

Pelagic has been run by Miles Wise and his partner Laura Parish since October 2008. Miles, born in 1979, was brought up on a farm in North Yorkshire, England. This has given him a love and understanding of wildlife and the countryside. Miles’ sailing started in 1993 with racing on the East Coast of England in the North Sea, and he then went on to train as a professional skipper and qualified in 1998. He is now an Ocean Yachtmaster, MCA medically trained, and has engineering and dive qualifications.

Miles worked for Challenge Business between 2002 and 2005, when he fulfilled numerous roles: adventure sailing in Iceland, and on the west coast of Scotland for 2 summers, training race crews in the winter, and refit work in the yard. In 2005 he trained crew and raced in Tall ships with a youth team from Northumberland. Since 2005 he has skippered for Ondeck Sailing on Farr 65’s in the Carribean, transatlantics, and the UK, as well as freelance work for other sailing companies such as Mike Golding Yacht racing and White Ocean Racing.

Laura, also a qualified yachtmaster, has been sailing since 1997. She completed the 2000-2001 BT Global Challenge as Watch Leader on the winning yacht LG Flatron. She has competed in several Fastnet races - one double handed - and the Round Britain and Ireland Race in an all female crew as 1st Mate. Since sailing round the world, Laura has been a leadership consultant working with a variety of different organisations to develop their leadership and team working skills and is also a qualified Maths teacher.

Alec Hazell, born in 1979, grew up in Falmouth England, sailing on a variety of local boats and diving the many wrecks in the area. Alec has travelled extensively through southern Africa where he qualified as a pilot for light aircraft. Returning to the UK he trained and worked as a commercial diver for a number of marine engineering and salvage companies.

Returning to Mozambique in 2001 he ran a game fishing and diving camp for two years. In 2003 he took his RYA Yachtmaster Offshore course in Durban and that same year sailed as first mate on the new Pelagic Australis on her delivery from Cape Town to the Falklands and for her first southern season with skipper Steve Wilkins. In the northern spring of 2004 he helped deliver Pelagic Australis to the UK and then was the first mate on Pelagic Australis’ first northern summer in Norway and Spitsbergen with skipper Rich Haworth.

Sailing back south again in September 2004 from the UK to Stanley, he then crewed with Jerome Poncet’s Golden Fleece to South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula followed by skippering the original Pelagic for charters in Tierra del Fuego during March and April. In 2005 he was again on board for Greenland during Pelagic Australis’ second Arctic season.

Since then he and his partner Giselle Botha have been working with Skip on Pelagic Australis for the Cape Town refits during the southern winter and skippering Pelagic during the summers based from Stanley. In February and March 2008 they spent two months on Prion Island contracted to the South Georgia government as support vessel for a construction crew to build the Prion Island boardwalk through the albatross colony.

Richard Haworth, born 1968, grew up in Sheffield in the north of England. Here a passion for moors and mountains developed. From an early age he was climbing on the gritstone edges and served for many years in the Peak District Mountain Rescue team.

After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer, he specialized in engineering and project management of large petrochemical projects. This work enabled Richard to enjoy the cultural richness of cities and remote areas, living in Pakistan (2 years), Italy and the USA. Richard interspersed his professional activities with rock climbing and mountaineering expeditions in the UK, the European Alps, New Zealand, Patagonia, Bolivia, Jordan, Australia and Pakistan.

His enjoyment of the mountains, and desire to explore increasingly inaccessible zones, naturally led Richard to develop kayaking, skiing, and sailing skills.

He began sailing fifteen years ago in New Zealand and since completed several RORC seasons in UK waters. More recently he has made a living from sailing and his experience includes a number of single handed ocean passages. He has dedicated the last few years to sailing in the high latitudes of the southern oceans. In 1999 he took his own boat from the UK to Antarctica, and has subsequently sailed various boats between Patagonia, Antarctica and South Georgia. In 2002 he skippered Pelagic on her delivery to from Ushuaia to Cape Town and was responsible for a major refit to be ready for the 2002/2003 season.

In 2003 Richard delivered the new Pelagic Australis to Stanley along with skipper Steve Wilkins, and then skippered her for the 2004 and 2005 Arctic seasons in Spitsbergen and Greenland. In 2007 he set up his own consultancy for polar sailing called High Latitudes, and continues to be a collaborator with Pelagic Expeditions.

Chuck Gates, born 1953, was one of the original partners in the PELAGIC project to design, build, and operate a multipurpose expedition sailing vessel in the remote corners of the world. Chuck has participated in a number of Pelagic expeditions and skippered the Pelagic in a variety of settings.

Significant projects with Pelagic include a 13,000 mile exploration and diving journey through the remote southwest Pacific during 1989-90, a Tierra Del Fuego / Cape Horn / Beagle Channel expedition in 1994, and the ESPN sponsored expedition to Antarctica, which was the subject of a one hour documentary by the same network in 1996.

As a young man, Chuck was one of the most sought after bowmen in the international offshore racing circuit. He has participated in most of the major ocean races on a wide variety of boats, and was a key man in the successful campaign of “Aura”, winning the World Ocean Racing Championship in 1972-4. He went on to parlay that experience into a professional sailing career as captain, navigator and project manager.

Chuck holds a USCG 100 ton unlimited passenger Master’s license and has logged over 100,000 sea miles. Chuck also serves as President of RenewAire, LLC, a leading manufacturer of Energy Recovery Ventilators in the US, and is active in a variety of small boat endeavors. His favorite recreational activity is high-wind windsurfing.