Hafsteinn Johannson

 Solo Nonstop Circumnavigation via 5 Capes
English Channel - buoy at 50°13' N and 1°16' W  (Start & Finish)
August 20, 1990 - April 18, 1991

25,000, 241 Days, 103.7 Miles per Day
(4.32 knots), 0.568 νLWL

Hafsteinn Johannson in Reykjavik on July 7, 2007

© Richard Konkolski

Solo nonstop circumnavigation 1990 -1991

   Hafsteinn Johannsson, born on December 15, 1935, was the first Icelander to obtain a certificate for professional skin diving, after completing a three months course provided by former Norwegian Navy officers in 1959. He soon became a hero by saving an untold number of fishing vessels that got in trouble on high sea by tangling their nets into propellers. He was also a scuba diving instructor. He moved to Norway in 1973 to work in an aluminum plant, where he enjoyed hobby of sailing. He designed and build himself his 62 feet fiberglass boat Elding, which means Lightning.

        At the age of 55 he went on his solo nonstop circumnavigation challenge. He sailed from Egersund in Norway across North Sea and through English Channel, where he start his nonstop track by passing navigation buoy at 50°13' N and 1°16' W on August 20, 1990. After 241 days and 25,000 nautical miles he reached the same buoy on April 18, 1991 circling the globe by the difficult way rounding all five southernmost  capes. He become the first Icelander to do so.

Mr. Rúnar Ármann Arthúrsson described his challenge in book "Hafsteinn á Eldingunni", unfortunately only in the Icelandic language,

  

 

© Richard Konkolski

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