SAC: Goldeneye

This is the yacht we sailed to the Arctic Circle.

It's a Contessa 32 called Goldeneye and it's ideal for short handed expedition style sailing.

It's very tough so I never had any doubts as to ability to handle the conditions we experienced, with a pedegry of sailing to the oceans wilder corners (including a circumnavigation of Iceland).

Equally importantly it is manageable single handed, so that all sails can be set, reefed, tacked, gybed or brought down by one person in the cockpit.

Steering was done via a tiller not wheel (one less thing to go wrong) plus a wind vane steering mechanism to take that task off our hands (except in very light winds).

Here is Goldeneye in Kirkwall, Orkney, as we were about to set off.