Profiles of Pelagic's Skippers

Skip Novak, born in 1952 is an American based in Europe. 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 fifteen seasons in Antarctic waters, twelve of which were leading combined climbing and filming projects based from the vessel.

In 1993 and again in 1996 he and Pelagic were featured in one hour programs for ESPN which were aired worldwide. 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 and also for the Daily Telegraph in London.

During the last six years he occasionally has returned to top level ocean racing on large multihulls. In 1997 he navigated the French catamaran EXPLORER to a sailing record in the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu (5 days 9 hours). In 1998 he co-skippered EXPLORER with Bruno Peyron breaking the sailing record from Yokohama to San Francisco (14 days 17 hours). 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. See www.therace.org

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.

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.

Karsten Steinbach

Karsten Steinbach, born 1963, lives in the port town of Kiel Germany where he began sailing more than 25 years ago. After outgrowing small boat sailing within the Danish archipelago, cruising and racing destinations on bigger boats included Iceland, North America, the Pacific and Japan. After several trips into the icy waters of Greenland he has concentrated his activities on high latitude sailing. In 2000 he skippered the supporting sailing vessel of Arved Fuchs "Shackleton 2000" adventure that included shadowing the replica of the James Caird during her voyage in the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetland Islands and South Georgia. In 2001 he skippered the Pelagic for a 35 day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. Karsten holds the German equivalent to the British Yachtmaster Certificate and instructs students of the Academic Sailing Club in Kiel in offshore sailing. Besides sailing to remote destinations and participating in many other outdoor activities, he also finds time to pursue his profession as a commercial airline pilot for a charter company, owned by Lufthansa, which specializes in flights from Germany to southern Europe. He speaks fluent English