Charles Whipple, a native of Arizona and a writer and author based in Tokyo, will build a 21-foot yacht in New Zealand to plans drawn by small-boat designer John Welsford. Whipple will then sail the craft, named Resolution, around the world. He plans to start his voyage in October 2006

My friend Minoru Saito finished his seventh circumnavigation on June 6, 2005, the oldest singlehander ever at age 71. That gives me confidence. I’ll be 64 in November and I’m going to sail alone around the world.

Of course other seniors have sailed round the world. Sir Francis Chichester comes to mind, along with David Clark. But these men sailed big boats. Saito’s Shuten-dohji II is 50 feet long. Chichester's Gypsy Moth measured just over 53 feet, and Clark's boats were 44 and 34 feet long.

Still, some singlehanded circumnavigators sailed small boats. John Guzzwell’s Trekka measured 20’ 6”. Hiroshi Aoki's Ahodori was 20’ 9” LOA, and Robin Lee Graham’s Dove, 26 feet. It can be done. I plan to do it in a 21-foot blue-water voyager designed by John Welsford of Hamilton, New Zealand. Her name is Resolution.

John Welsford started all this for me with a small blue-water cruiser he called Swaggie. Eighteen-feet long and very robust, she looked like the kind of boat to take across oceans. A writer by trade, I suggested to John that perhaps I could go to New Zealand, build a Swaggie, chronicle the process, and produce a book on how to build the boat. John liked the idea, and discussions began.

I bought a set of Swaggie plans and scrutinized them for hours. But I wanted some things different, and I fiddled with the plans trying to create a personal boat inside John’s original hull lines. I found it difficult to get a navigation station, wet locker, galley sink, berths, and stowage shoehorned into 18 feet. So I asked John if I could stretch Swaggie by 12 percent and make my voyager 20-feet long. As the e-mails flew, however, John asked me what I planned to do once the boat was finished.

“Sail her around the world,” I said.

He answered, "I think you really need something different. Something more traditional. Something a little larger. Let me see what I can do."

By then we'd set the date of my arrival in New Zealand as the end of August 2005. I had some surgical work done in the U.S. in April, so not much progressed on Resolution. But once I returned in mid-May, John was ready to put pencil to paper and create my blue-water voyager.

I had specific ideas about what I wanted to see in the design, and John was willing to listen while applying his considerable skill and talent to the job. But in the interest of keeping this account readable, I'm going to talk about Resolution as if she were already built and ready to voyage.

Resolution, the Sundowner

John calls Resolution's design the Sundowner class. It's part of the same line of boats as Swaggie. Where Swaggie, the diminutive of Swagman of "Waltzing Matilda" fame, means tramp, Sundowner is more specific. Originally the name referred to Australian itinerants who showed up at a farmer's house at sundown looking for a place to spend the night, but were gone before the day's work started next morning. Nowadays, however, Sundowner has taken on a romantic hue, and connotes those who go where and when they please, completely without ties. Resolution is a Sundowner, and in a way, so am I.

A small ocean voyager must be tough and relatively heavy. Tough means decks, cabin, cockpit, and hatches of virtually identical strength. Resolution's a composite of wood and epoxy, and high-quality marine plywood is integral to her strength. John designed her with 12-mm thick marine ply frames that are also bulkheads. The frames are bolstered with hardwood and serve as bearers for thick, strong, laminated stringers. The hull's wide for sail-carrying power, but offers a fairly sharp vee to the waves at the bow. Resolution's two hard chines add stability and help damp the roll. And the big laminated chine logs further increase the toughness of the hull structure. Resolution's skin is two layers of marine plywood glued and fastened over the chine logs and stringers. A tougher combination would be hard to find. Furthermore, the decks, cabin sides, and cabin roof are all double-layer laminated marine ply. And every panel is screwed and nailed to the stringers or beams that support it. Very strong, yet simple and easy to do for an amateur backyard boatbuilder like me.

Strength is not all the hull needs. It must be shaped properly and designed correctly. John based Resolution's shape very loosely on the Itchen Ferries of England. He gave her 1540 pounds of lead ballast set in a full-length keel. She displaces over 5200 pounds, heavy for a 21-foot boat. But then, she must carry enough stores and equipment for up to three months on the water at a time. She's fitted with a Farymann-Bukh 7.5 HP diesel engine that runs 3-3.5 hours on a gallon of fuel, and her propeller is protected by the full keel. With a draft of just over three feet, she can anchor inside the crowd of cruising boats that draw five feet and more. With the forefoot of the keel quite far forward, Resolution sits easily against a piling or a wharf to dry out for bottom painting or other maintenance.

With decks, cabin, and hatches built virtually indestructible, Resolution's stanchions, deck hardware, and pulpits are all through-bolted and backed by steel plates. Her cockpit is small, taking up only about one-fourth her LOA. Three people can sit in the cockpit by design, and the Sundowner class includes an interior layout that sleeps four, but Resolution was built for two, maximum. The cockpit seats cover the quarter berths for half their distance and lockers are built into the sternmost sections. The shallow cockpit sports a raised floor, which is actually the access hatch to the stern tube area. The hatch is four inches above the surrounding area, which creates gutters down each side that lead directly to the drains in the transom. The decked-over portion just forward of the transom houses fuel tanks and a locker for odorous items like paint, thinner, and containers of kerosene.

Besides its solid construction, the cockpit has a compass, engine controls, pad eyes for safety harness tethers, heavy-duty latches on the lockers and stern tube access hatch, and a tough dodger that fits securely over stainless steel tubing and covers half the cockpit to provide a steering station that's out of the weather.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity

John's philosophy, which matches my own, is to keep it simple. He says concerning his own boats: "If I can't fix it with what I have on board, or continue on without it, that item does not get put in the design." He has no intention of cooling his heels is some port while waiting for spare parts to arrive.

Resolution will sail the Southern Ocean. She'll spend most of her time around the 40th south parallel, but to round Cape Horn, she'll have to dip down to 56° south and endure the Howling Fifties. So her rig must be strong and simple. Swaggie has a junk rig, Resolution demanded to be a cutter.

A solid laminated wooden mast centers Resolution's simple gaff cutter rig, which is short fore and aft so the boom misses the wind vane on the stern pulpit. The jib's reachable from the foredeck too. Forward, an overlapping genoa rides the head stay on self-furling gear. On the forestay, a loose-footed staysail or a little spitfire storm jib can be hanked on as necessary. There will be times, I'm sure, when she'll want to heave to in heavy winds.

The main sail laces to the boom, mast, and gaff. Its leading edge is long, adding power, and it has three sets of reef points to slab-reef the sail down to handkerchief size. If the wind kicks up, a storm trysail and storm jib help her make way in heavy weather.

Both boom and gaff have jaws rather than goosenecks, and they sit on lanolin-soaked leathers wrapped around the thick wooden mast. Almost every part of the rig's handmade, and it can be repaired under way without special tools.

The mast is guyed with quarter-inch stainless steel 1-19 wire-shrouds, forestay, head stay -- bent around stainless steel thimbles at the ends and swaged with copper sleeves. Oversized chain plates and tangs anchor the shrouds and stays, with 3/8” toggle-jawed turnbuckles providing the tension.

Simplicity and singlehanding go together. And once the sails are set, everything can be done from the cockpit. Changing sails, however, means getting out on the deck. Of course, that's motivation to change early, especially if the weather deteriorates. Light air, however, brings another set of sails—a topsail above the gaff and a big genaker designed especially for gentle breezes.

Resolution carries cloth, needles, sewing awl, grommet setter, and extra grommets, repair tape, and everything else she needs for sail repair. Likewise, all the standing rigging can be fixed -- everything but making a new mast. In addition, she's got an extra main, staysail, and genoa.

Room for two

I'll singlehand Resolution around the world, but she's built for two. The two berths are almost exactly in the longitudinal center of the boat, the best place for comfort. On voyages, high lee cloths not only keep the sleeping person in the bunk, but they also separate the off-watch crew member from the rest of the cabin.

The berths also act as settees with room for two on each, so four friends can enjoy an evening of conversation in the golden light of Resolution's kerosene lanterns. A table folds down from the bulkhead for meals or evening drinks, and a kerosene heater stands against the wall. The galley's gimbaled kerosene cooker and removable sink work well for two under way, and 200 liters of fresh water mean two people can enjoy an extensive offshore voyage, from Tauranga to Fiji, for example.

Forward, the hatch provides sitting headroom over the marine toilet and a curtain divides the area from the main cabin. Extra sails go in the forepeak, beyond the head.

At night, the navigation station's illuminated by red or white LED lights, and the navigator sits on the forward end of the starboard bunk to plot the course. The tabletop lifts for the chart stowage, and a fresh water tank resides beneath. The VHF radio is on the bulkhead along with the sextant, my three handheld GPS units, the hand compass, and an Iridium satellite phone.

Headroom in the main cabin ranges from six feet under the main hatch to 5' 4" when standing by the settees. At 5' 11", I need to stoop in the cabin sometimes, but those not quite so tall find it very spacious.

Minimal electrics and mechanicals

Resolution's simple. That means minimum electric and mechanical help. The running rigging operates with multipart purchases, a simple furler system, and two bottom-handle winches. The Farymann-Bukh diesel engine needs no electricity, as it can be started with a hand crank. Nevertheless, equipped with an electric starter and an alternator, it feeds the battery bank that powers the few electric items on Resolution's list of equipment.

Every light aboard Resolution is LED for minimal power drain. That includes the tricolor at the masthead, the all-around white steaming light, the navigation table lights, and the compass light. Otherwise, she uses kerosene, both for cabin lights and for the anchor light.

The boat does have a 12V accessories outlet that charges phone and laptop, and powers a searchlight. The GPS units work on dry cell batteries, with an ample supply of extras sealed in waterproof Tupperware.

Why sail around the world alone?

Even a day sail in an open dingy is an adventure. The bigger adventure is to sail around the world, and the ultimate journey is to sail around alone.

As long as I'm to sail Resolution around the world, I suppose there are many reasons to do it alone. But most of all, I want to prove that I can . . . even though I'm past sixty, and even though I was raised in the mountains of Arizona.

Years and careers intervened, until 1974 found me aboard a jetliner from Japan to Hawaii with a new wife and a determination that we become a cruising family. During our courtship, I'd spent hours verbally dreaming of sailing to faraway islands in tropical oceans. She said she'd like to go along, and we agreed to marry. As the plane approached the runway at Honolulu, I said, "I have no idea what kind of job I can find in Hawaii, but I will dig ditches if I must until we can buy a cruising boat."

Our daughter was born in January 1975.I found my first Resolution the following March. She was a cold-molded sloop of 32 feet, made in Japan and well kept for her decade afloat. The owner wanted $10,000 for her. I took my wife and baby daughter to Ala Wai Yacht Harbor to inspect the boat, and at the end of the broker's tour, we sat in the main cabin as the sloop rocked gently in her moorings.

"What do you think of her,” I asked.

"Nice boat,” she said.

"We can't afford an apartment and a boat,” I said, "can you live aboard until she's paid for?”

My wife adjusted the baby in her arms and stared at me. "You're not really serious, are you?” she said.

The boat I'd named Resolution went to another buyer, and I settled down to being a father and a writer.

In January 1977, we returned to Japan and made our home there. Over three decades, I owned several boats—Miss America, a 24-foot sharpie schooner I designed and built myself; Charlie's Angel, a 16-foot unsinkable cutter in which I sailed the islands south of Tokyo; Umisaurus, a 34-foot center cockpit sloop; Millennium Rhyme, a vintage Bluewater 21; and DoriKam, a Westsail 32 that took me from Olympus, Washington, to La Paz, Mexico.

"I'm leaving Japan for New Zealand,” I told my wife. "I'll build a boat there. Now the children are grown and married. I've written more ads and articles and annual reports than I can count. But I haven't sailed around the world, and it's time I did."

"I knew this would happen someday,” she said. "Take care, and make sure you take a satellite phone."

On August 30, 2005, I will leave Japan, flying through the night to land in Auckland on August 31st. My affairs are in order. The funds for building Resolution are set aside. I have a place to live in New Zealand and I've rented space from John Welsford for building Resolution. This marks the beginning of a new phase in my life. The ending will come when Resolution and I sail back into a New Zealand harbor after going around the world together.

Plans are available from John Welsford, PO Box 24 062, Abels Shopping Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand

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