Reality
An independent
expedition.
No institution behind this project. No partnership manager, no delegated operating budget, no quarterly meeting with a steering committee. Two people, a 47-foot aluminium sailboat, and several years of savings committed without a safety net.
This is a choice, not a default constraint.
The figures
What it really costs.
An Antarctic circumnavigation maintained south of 60°S, viable, prepared, authorised, costs approximately €500,000. Not €5 million like a Vendée Globe campaign. Not €2 million like an institutional expedition on a research vessel. €500,000. Entirely personal.
ARION is the expedition.
Almost the entire budget is in the boat. ARION, Strongall 47-foot aluminium, 17 tonnes, centerboard keel, built to hold in the Southern Seas, is the expedition's central choice: putting the money where it counts, where real safety is decided. Not in image. Not in communication equipment. Not in shore offices.
What that leaves for everything else, systems, provisions, communications, insurance, scientific equipment, polar preparation, is little. And it is with little that we prepare the expedition.
What it doesn't fund.
Compare with what other polar projects cost:
- Vendée Globe €2 – 5M
- Institutional expedition (research vessel) €500k – 2M
- Boreal 52 + full polar preparation €600k – 900k
- Odyssey of AION, personal funds ~ €500k
We don't claim to do the same thing with the same means. We claim to do the same navigation with less, by choosing the right tool rather than the perfect tool.
The method
We leave when it's viable.
Not when it's perfect.
An independent expedition doesn't wait to have everything. It assesses what is needed to leave safely, finds solutions for what is missing, and documents why it holds. This is not risk-taking, it is constraint engineering.
Communications redundancy.
Starlink Ocean as the main link, Iridium GO! as messaging backup. Enough to hold SOS and short messages if Starlink drops. Not enough for heavy GRIB weather, ice routing, or continuous scientific transmission.
Below 65°S, Starlink experiences more frequent service gaps, sometimes several hours. Over a multi-month route without ports of call, those gaps accumulate. A high-bandwidth redundancy would change the nature of the operation, not just its comfort.
What a partner would change: Iridium Certus terminal + annual subscription. Cost: ~ €15,000. Guaranteed weather and data continuity across the entire circumpolar zone, including in sectors where Starlink drops.
Polar night vision.
Today: fixed spotlight + visual watch. Detection of a 1 to 3-metre growler showing just above the surface, which gives no radar return, peaks at 30 metres to the naked eye and 100 metres under spotlight. At 7 knots, that leaves ten to thirty seconds to avoid.
A forward-looking thermal camera detects these blocks at 200-300 metres in polar conditions, because ice returns a strong thermal contrast against the sea. The avoidance window is multiplied by ten. Night watch in ice zones stops being a gamble.
What a partner would change: two marine thermal cameras + cockpit screen + chart-table integration. Cost: ~ €8,000. This item is listed as "under study" on the ARION page: a partner closes that loop.
The sails.
We have an almost new set, thick Dacron, solid, indestructible in normal conditions. The problem is that we will not be in normal conditions. Our genoa is 100m²: a monster. Rolling it in requires the winch it is so heavy. In the southern latitudes, in degraded conditions, it is unmanageable for two. The full-batten mainsail is similarly sized, three reefs, very solid, but over-rated and exhausting to raise even on a ball-bearing car.
What's needed: a genoa half the size for the Drake, and a "7"-shaped mainsail, truncated head like IMOCA boats, four reefs, cut adapted to rapid reduction. The current one would serve as a spare: it has value, it won't be discarded.
This is the item that changes the relationship to the boat in bad weather the most. Not survival, the capacity to manoeuvre without fighting your own canvas.
Other items, electronics, energy, safety, deck equipment, are functional. What a partner brings is new where we have second-hand, redundancy where we have a single unit, and a reference brand where we have the minimum viable. Each item has been evaluated in that order.
Inventory
Current state per item, and what a partner unlocks.
Cold reading, no drama. Each line is an evaluated item: what we carry today, what would change with a committed partner.
| Item | Current state | If partner | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communications | Starlink Ocean + lightweight Iridium GO! | Iridium Certus full high-bandwidth redundancy | ~ €15k |
| Polar night vision | Spotlight + visual watch, ~30 m range | 2 marine thermal cameras, ~250 m range | ~ €8k |
| Polar sails for two | Almost new Dacron set, oversized for 2 sailors | 50 m² genoa + "7"-shaped 4-reef mainsail adapted to 2-crew | ~ €30k |
| Passive acoustics | Amateur hydrophone, post-route processing | Pro chain + onboard recording and processing | ~ €10k |
| Polar survival suits | Standard offshore suits | 2 polar immersion suits + extreme-cold raft | ~ €12k |
Total of the five items: ~ €75,000 to take the expedition from viable to excellent. Each item can be taken in isolation, as a single technical partnership or in combination.
Partnership
A partner doesn't buy
the expedition's survival.
The expedition leaves regardless. What a partner brings is the difference between viable and excellent. These are not the same thing, and this is precisely where the contribution has value.
A polar sail wardrobe adapted to a two-person crew means certainty that the canvas holds to the end, not hope that it survives one more squall. A targeted redundancy on a critical item means the ability to keep going when something breaks in waters where the next repair is done alone, at −10°C, with what was embarked.
What it concretely changes.
- A funded item = additional operational margin
- New equipment = manufacturer warranty in the most isolated waters on Earth
- Redundancy = the ability to continue when something breaks
- A constituted provision = a routing decision that doesn't depend on remaining budget
What it doesn't change.
- The route, decided on board and only on board
- The scientific protocol, it belongs to the crew
- The turn-back thresholds, set before departure
- Editorial independence, no sponsor has access to our raw data
See partnership forms, technical, media, targeted support.
Support usPrinciple
Independence is not
a lack of support.
An expedition with ten lead sponsors is an expedition with ten stakeholders on the route. Not necessarily. But potentially: a logo to showcase in this situation, a communication constraint in another, an angle chosen by someone who has never seen the Drake.
Independence here is the condition for decisions to be made on board , and only on board. Route, timing, scientific protocol, acceptable risk level: these decisions belong to those in the boat. Not to a committee. Not to a brand. Not to a visibility logic.
A technical partner who provides equipment, an engine, a watermaker, sails, survival suits, does not buy a say in the navigation. They associate with a project that knows exactly where it is going and why. And they come back from it with data no one else can bring.
That's the proposition we make.
No other.