Arcus archives

Recently Arcus Wire Group had the opportunity to sponsor Lisa Blair on her quest to become the first woman to circumnavigate Antarctica solo, non-stop and unassisted. Also circumnavigate below 45 degrees South and Compete in the Antarctica Cup Ocean Yacht Race. Lisa is sailing her yacht Climate Action Now which AWG was proud to provide the wire and fittings for its rigging.

What is the Antarctica Cup? Well the Antarctica Cup Ocean Race is a non-stop race of around 14 000 nautical miles. Circumnavigating Antarctica by passing the three most notorious capes on the planet. Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn and Cape Agulhuss. Originally founded by Robert Williams the race has only ever seen one edition with current record holder Fedor Konyukhov being the only competitor brave enough to take on this challenge. Lisa will be racing the established record set by Fedor and will be the third person in History to complete such a challenge.

With Lisa’s big adventure she wanted trusted wire and fittings to be on her yacht. AWG responded with the supply of its top of the line hamma Pro wire rope and its own brand of fittings hamma Regatta. AWG supplied the following components for Lisa’s journey:

• 60m x 12mm hamma Pro 
• 16m x 14mm hamma Pro
• 13m x 10mm hamma Pro
• 7 x hamma Regatta Turnbuckles
• 3 x hamma Regatta Swage Toggles
• 6 x hamma Regatta Shroud Terminals
• 4 x hamma Regatta Toggle Eye Jaws
• 1 x hamma Regatta Toggle Plate

The rigging wires were manufactured to length in house using AWG’s expert team and Wireteknik roll swaging machine.

Unfortunately Lisa suffered a few knock downs on her journey which lead to her having to drop her rig. After inspection of the problem we believe there was a stray current on board which lead to the problem. Lisa’s resilience was shown when she set up a jury rig to get herself back to Cape Town for repairs. She has been able to get a new mast for Climate Action Now and AWG was once again happy to help Lisa out with her rigging wire and fittings.

Here at AWG we wish Lisa well for the rest of her journey and hope to see her back in Australia soon. To follow Lisa on her journey you can follow her on her blog here.