Two British architects bought an old lifeboat, refurbished it, painted it yellow, and then cruised 3,100 miles through eight countries and ended up in Tromsø, Norway, the largest city inside the Arctic Circle. They wintered over there, and now are getting ready to finish cruising the coast of Norway this spring and summer.
Guylee Simmonds and David Schnabel, both 28, bought the decommissioned lifeboat in February, 2018. They had dreamed of a big adventure, and they spent a year making it what they called “the supreme adventure craft.” Built in Norway in 1997, the vessel served as a lifeboat for a ferry service on the western isles of Scotland. It was about 35 feet long with a beam of 10 feet. And it was orange.
They spent a year refitting it themselves. The interior had bench seats for 100 people. They tore them out, put in a galley, two cabins forward, a small salon (with opening panoramic windows on each side), a composting head, a furnace, and a cockpit. They named it Stødig, which means “sound and steadfast” in Norwegian.
On May 10, 2019, they launched the boat in the southern British port of Newhaven. To keep them company, they had their dog, a retriever named Shackleton, on board. Then they crossed the English Channel, went up the coast to the Kiel Canal and headed through Denmark, Sweden and the lower tip of Norway up to Bergen, taking pictures along the way.
They cruised through fjords and uninhabited wilderness and ended up in Tromsø for the winter. The boat is powered by its original engine, a Lister Petter diesel;; it cruises at 6 knots, burning about 0.8 gph. See their video below:
http://barden-uk.com/converted-lifeboat-stodig-leaves-newhaven-for-the-arctic-circle
