Ella Hibbert at the Little Ship Club

by John Hasselgren

Another year has gone by and it was again time for the Small Craft Group to accept the hospitality of the Little Ship Club and to arrange a speaker for them.

This year’s talk was by Ella Hibbert, who very animatedly and enthusiastically described her plans to sail single-handed round the Arctic Ocean by way of both the North-West Passage and the North-East Passage. By this large undertaking Ella intends to draw attention to the changes that this part of the world is having inflicted on it by human activity, in particular by climate change. It will also be the first voyage of this kind and, as well as raising awareness of the state of the Arctic, it is expected to raise funds for two charities – Polar Bears International and Ocean Conservancy. The first is seeking to conserve polar bears which are under threat of reducing numbers due to loss of habitat, the second attempting to conserve the unregulated Arctic Ocean from mass exploitation and pollution.

Ella described herself as being used to a rather nomadic life due to her father having been a serving soldier who was relocated several times while she was growing up. Now 28 years old, she is a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and a PADI Divemaster. She is bi-lingual and well travelled, and has a passion to preserve the oceans.

The first job when preparing for this voyage was to find a suitable boat. Ella had definite views on what she wanted.  Firstly, it must be sturdy and capable of  coping with ice conditions. This dictated a steel hull. Next requirement was for steering from inside a wheel house to allow an escape from the weather. Other desirable features were a sensible length; not too long to give manoeuvrability around ice and a reputable design that could be rigged for single-handed sailing. Quite by chance, while running a sailing school course, Ella berthed alongside what she realized was the right vessel, Yeva, a 38 foot Bruce Roberts designed steel ketch. Asking if Yeva was for sale, Ella found that she was, and then had to secure the funding to buy and refit her.

Seeking sponsorship Ella was supported in Spring 2024 by several companies, the main one being capital.com, a financial investment company. Beyond this, though, are a long list of marine companies giving their products, time or equipment to this project. A full list of all these can be found on Ella’s website, ellainthearctic.co.uk.

Yeva has been given a full refit, including a repaint, new sails with both standing and running rigging, and several items designed to minimize any impact on the environment. These include a watermaker, both a solar panel and a hydro-generator to provide electrical power, self-steering and a heater. One innovation is a filtration system fitted to the bilge pump outlet that will remove micro-plastic that now seems to be found in all oceans.

Moving on to her desire to preserve the oceans, and particularly the Arctic Ocean, Ella spoke passionately of some of the problems. Unlike the Antarctic, there is no International Agreement on the ownership or use of the Arctic area, and no treaty to limit the pollution from oil and plastic. With the withdrawal of the ice there are likely to be conflicting demands for the exploitation of the mineral resources that have, until recently, been out of reach. There is the prospect that the Arctic could be free of ice by 2028, which, with the melting  of the Greenland ice sheet, will cause a large rise in sea level. Additionally, the darker colour of the unfrozen sea compared with the original ice will cause a reduction in the reflection of sunlight, thus increasing global warming. There will be the prospect of wild fires in the northern Russian forests. All this leads to Ella’s desire that her voyage will not contribute to any of these problems, and to many of the changes made to, and included on board, Yeva. The water generator, for example, will, given a speed of three knots, produce more electricity than Yeva consumes.

Last year, 2024, between July and October, Ella and Yeva undertook a shake-down voyage of 3,500 nautical miles, from the UK to Norway, with crew, then single handed to Longyearbyen on Svalbard and back. At Bear Island Ella experienced a total steering failure. She also had some flooding and a non-working bilge pump, leading to the need to pump manually. With advice and help to fix these difficulties, Ella then sailed back to Shetland before returning to the UK.

The yacht is currently undergoing a refit to counter problems discovered on shake-down voyage. “Is any boat ever truly finished?”, asked Ella.  She has now moved back on board and is getting on with some of the jobs. Amongst other things she is undertaking instruction in electricity and electronics with a view to becoming self-sufficient in these areas. 

One major effort is getting all the necessary permits and visas; so far the Russians have approved Ella’s plans, have accepted the boat’s survey and provided a list of ports that could be used if needed. Canada seems to be slightly slower in this regard. Before the planned departure date of May 2025 Ella plans to do more sea trials. In the mean time she will be giving talks and interviews  to schools, groups and clubs as well as using social media to raise awareness of the environmental issues.

More details are available on social media using the address @ellainthearctic.

Once again, Ella insisted that this is not a record attempt, but a wake-up call.

Once the journey is over, Ella plans to put Yeva up for sale by auction, with the proceeds being shared between the two charities, Polar Bears International and Ocean Conservancy.

During questions Ella stated that she has fitted Granny Bars at the main mast for safety when working there and that the winches are not self-tailing, needing two hands to work them.

On weather forecasts she told us that her father flew helicopters in the Army for 20 years and is used to looking at forecasts. He will be checking relevant forecasts and forwarding them to her.

Daily video reports from automatic cameras on board can be expected, but are dependent on the availability of the internet wherever she happens to be.

She would like to make the voyage non-stop, but needs to consider supplies. She would prefer to avoid stocking up in Russia, although they have suggested suitable ports.

On being asked if she would be collecting water samples, Ella said that although this would be ideal it wasn’t possible. The equipment to analyse the samples would be too bulky and heavy to carry. The alternative would be to have sufficient fridge space to return the samples for on-shore analysis.

On charts, Ella said she would be carrying both paper and electronic charts from the USA, Canada and Norway. Russian charts would be useful, although they were not easy to obtain.

At the end of the meeting Paul Bryans thanked the Little Ship Club for hosting us, and Ella for a fascinating and enthusiastic presentation.