The Crew
Juho Karhu and Sohvi a Finnish couple bought a rare solidly build aluminum boat Garcia Nouanni 43 for $57,000 and refitted it to sail the Arctic regions - Alaska and then via Northwest Passage to the Greenland.
The couple enjoys sailing, kitesurfing, and skiing in various cold places and contributing when they can to voluntary research projects, including climate change on the glaciers and persistent organic pollutants and their spreading in the Arctic. All of this is in very cold places.
Juho has published many videos about sailing and skiing in fantastic Norwegian nature. One of the videos is a review of the best diesel heaters for boats, which he got a use during wintering aboard in Norway.
In Previous Episodes with Jiho and Sohvi
Juho was looking for an aluminum boat for a long time since boat with aluminum hulls thrives best in cold areas. A purchase was made in the Netherlands, but SV Sylvia ended with a lot of technical problems and the boat was sold.
Then Juho took over as skipper of an aluminum boat - SV Artika that had been abandoned in Tromsø by a French sailor. It was an expedition boat with many special technical solutions. The sailboat was restored by Juho and he sailed to Iceland together with Sohvi. Several of the videos describe repairs since they also had a lot of technical trouble this time. This included rebuilding the rudder and stopping the water leakage along the rudder shaft. In one of the episodes from Iceland, they have engine trouble and have to call for help. This, however, has not stopped the Finnish couple from boats with high maintenance needs, and they have bought a Garcia Nouanni 43 in California.
Juho and Sohvi have made an impressive effort over the course of four months. The couple has posted YouTube videos during the renovation of a Garcia Nouanni 43. The videos give an interesting insight into a boat that has been left on land for 15 years and how to manage such a restoration project to manage such a restoration project.
- 2018: Sailing & skiing in Finland & Norway
- 2019: Sailed to Svalbard and back, where we skied some new lines. In Svalbard participated Gdansk Technical University's Sval-POPs project, collecting snow samples for the research of persistent organic pollutants and their spreading in the Arctic.
- 2019 summer: Collecting glacier imagery for Norway’s glacier atlas a free hydrology data source used by scientists for example to track the effects of climate change on the glaciers. Kitesurfing & sailing.
- 2020/2021 Winter: Second winter sailing & skiing in Norway
- 2021 Summer: Sold s/y Sylvia, moved to Arktika
- 2021 Summer: Sailed Arktika from Norway to Iceland with Sohvi
- 2022 Spring: Bought a Garcia Nouanni 43, refit in CA, USA
aluminum sailboat arctic cold weather sailing cruising freeride freeriding freeski freeskiing iceland liveaboard norway ocean sailboat sailboat refit sailing sailing iceland sea skiing svalbard winter
