David Scott Cowper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Scott Cowper is a British Yachtsman, and was the first man to sail solo round the world in both directions and also to successfully sail the Northwest passage single-handed.

[edit] Biography

Born in 1943, David Cowper was educated at Stowe School and lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne as a quantity surveyor but sailing was his passion from an early age.

In 1980 Cowper completed the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe solo via Cape Horn in a sloop, Ocean Bound, beating Francis Chichester's record of 226 days by one day.

He repeated the feat two years later in a westerly rather than easterly direction in 237 days, beating Chay Blyth's record by 71 days and becoming the first person to circumnavigate the world in both directions single-handed.

He switched to motor boats and in 1984-1985 he sailed westwards round the globe in a converted wooden lifeboat, the Mabel E. Holland, via the Panama Canal, becoming the first person to circumnavigate solo in a motor boat.

These feats served as a prelude to the first solo circumnavigation via the Northwest Passage, which consumed four and a half years and ended in 1990. He started up the Greenland coast and south of Devon Island to Resolute despite meeting much pack ice. He got as far as Fort Ross the first year and he left Mabel Holland anchored in the ice. When he returned next summer he found her waterlogged and spent the short summer pulling her ashore and repairing her. The following year he managed to reach Alaska and left the boat at Inuvik on the Mackenzie River before one of the coldest winters in Arctic history.

He reached the Bering Strait on 10th August 1989 becoming the first person to have completed the passage single-handed. Continuing via Midway and Papua New Guinea he reached Darwin on the Australian coast just before the start of the hurricane season and laid her up there. Returning in April 1990, he continued via the Cape of Good Hope, arriving back in Newcastle on 24th September.

Since then he has been trying to complete the North East Passage over the top of Russia. He had an aluminium boat, Polar Bound, built and took it round Cape Horn and up the west coast of America in 2002, but was refused permission by the Russian authorities and turned east and completed the North West passage again, in two summers, from west to east. He is currently preparing the boat again for another attempt, should permission be given.

[edit] Sources