When Wuzzos met Fedor Konyukhov- The greatest adventurer on the planet

I am lucky enough to have made a career around my passion of sailing having spent over 20 years developing clothing and footwear for the harshest environments that mother nature has to offer. I now navigate Wuzzos to design, develop and manufacture the best performance sailing footwear on the market. If I asked you to list your achievements, what can you say?

I had the honour of meeting Fedor Konyukhov – the worlds most accomplished explorer to have ever lived; conqueror of extraordinary feats, and holder of more than 20 world records:

• Fedor has circumnavigated the globe five times, including a round the world balloon flight, and has crossed the Atlantic Ocean fifteen times.
• He is the first and only person in the world to have reached the five extreme Poles on earth:
  • The North Pole – three times
  • The South Pole
  • The Pole of Inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean
  • The top of Mount Everest (Alpinist’s pole) – twice
  • Sailed around the world via Cape Horn (Yachtsman’s pole) – five times
• First person to complete Adventurers Grand Slam program in chronological order: North Pole, South Pole, and Seven Summits (Everest) and Denali (Alaska). It took 9 years to complete.
• First successful single-handed row across the Southern Ocean in 154 days and 13 hours covering 6402 nautical miles (New Zealand – Cape Horn, Chile).

The 2018 Southern Ocean row was in a custom 33ft rowing boat “AKROS” designed by British naval architect Phil Morrison. She was built by the team at Rannoch Adventure, founded by Charlie Pitcher, who is his own right holds the world record for the fastest unassisted solo row across the Atlantic, smashing the previous record by almost 6 days, beating all the double and four crews on the water.

The Southern Ocean is the most dangerous in the world and Fedor knew he would spend most of the voyage thousands of miles from rescue. AKROS capsized many times on the crossing, and during one of the numerous storms, solar panels were ripped from the deck in 45 knots of wind and a 7-meter swell, but the rowing boat kept morphing into survival capsule and back again to ensure leg 1 of this epic journey was completed. Fedor was 67 years young when he crossed the finish line.

There’s more though – Leg 2 will start late 2022 from where Fedor left off at the Diego-Ramirez Islands (Chile) and take him 8000 nautical miles to Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia and then a final push on Leg 3 from Western Australia back to Denudin, New Zealand where it all started back in December 2018.

Early 2022, Fedor Konyukhov is next attempting the first solo crossing of the Pacific Ocean aboard NOVA, a 37ft ocean-class catamaran equipped with electric propulsion motors and flexible solar modules. Rannoch Adventure has been commissioned for the build, in conjunction with Phil Morrison who has previously designed all three of Fedor’s ocean rowing boats – URALAZ, TURGOYAK and AKROS. The crossing is 9,000 nautical miles and estimated to take around 4 months.

NOVA is in her final stages of being fitted out and as the Wuzzos team arrived, 12 lithium batteries were being prepared for installation in each of the hulls (24 in total). There was a distinct buzz between designer, boat builder and adventurer, all with a common goal of creating another record-breaking craft.

The attention to detail in design and specification of Wuzzos sailing footwear is comparable to their approach to boats where only the best will do and every detail matters. Fedor was presented with a personalised pair of Wuzzos premium boat shoes with his name embellished on the side. He has also agreed to work with Wuzzos to wear test and feedback on a development outsole compound during the Pacific Crossing on NOVA.