Brothers team up to send replica boats on circumnavigation of Antarctica

Two brothers have teamed up to send two replica ships to circumnavigate Antarctica in what is thought to be a world first.

Ollie and Harry Ferguson from Turriff, Aberdeenshire are gearing up to send the one metre long wooden boats on the 20,000 kilometre mission to the Southern Ocean in a trip that will replicate the Ross scientific expedition of 1839-43 where the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror discovered the Ross Ice Shelf.

Ollie, 12 and Harry, 10 have previously beat world records with other boat adventures. The boats will be made to scale from elm and will be fitted with sensors to measure sea temperature and ocean pH – both of which can be used as markers for climate change.

Harry said putting the project together “is like a mission to Mars” and added: “We cannot rescue the boats once they are launched so we have to plan every detail.”

Ollie hopes the vessels will gather some useful data. He said: “To stop the impacts of climate change, then we first need to understand how it is affecting us, we hope our boats will gather some useful data.

MacNeill Ferguson, the boys’ father, said: “The boys have taken an active role in every aspect of the project.”

“The favourite part of the process has definitely been the sea trials where they got to test the keel design, draft, self-righting capability and wind impact.

“We wanted the adventure to have a scientific component as a homage to the original 1839 expedition and to this end the boats will carry a camera and two sensors that can be used to send back data via satellite on ocean acidity and temperature.

“The vessels will drift through the Southern Ocean following the circumpolar current around the coastline of Antarctica. They will send a GPS location signal several times a day with the onboard cameras sending a photograph once a month via satellite.

“These will be the smallest boats ever to sail the Antarctic seas and will need to stay afloat in the world’s harshest waters and survive long enough to drift 20,000 km.”

The Ferguson brothers previously set the world record for the longest distance travelled at sea by a toy boat.

Ollie and Harry sailed their Playmobil pirate ship ‘Adventure’ over 6,000 kilometres to the Caribbean as part of a list of 500 adventures.

The family received a helping hand from wireless technology specialists Icoteq, who designed the vessels’ tracking and monitoring devices.

Craig Rackstraw from Icoteq, said: “We were contacted by MacNeill to ask if we could advise him on the best tracker to buy online to fit to the boats and were so inspired by Ollie and Harry’s mission, we offered to build the technology for them,” said Icoteq Managing Director Craig Rackstraw.

“The boys will hopefully provide inspiration to other children and families. They’re both extremely hands on and have worked hard to make this happen. They built the boats as far as possible by themselves – and at every stage where they have had to get professional help, it has all been given for free.”

The boats will leave the UK for South Georgia in the Southern Atlantic and will be taken aboard a fisheries patrol vessel before being launched 160 kilometres north into the Antarctic circumpolar current.