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Making Waves Imagine sailing around the world alone: For
hundreds of days, churning seas and wide-open skies surround
you and your sailboat. You live on dehydrated foods and sleep in intervals of 10 to 20 minutes for up to six hours. And always, it’s just you and your boat and the sea.
Brad Van Liew ’92 can more than imagine. Last year, he and his boat Balance Bar (named for his sponsor) – with the help of an on-shore support team headed by wife Meaghan Van Liew ’92 – arrived in Charleston, S.C., to complete the eight-month, 27,000-mile Around Alone race for solo sailors. He was the youngest skipper and the only American to finish the race, coming in third in Class II for 40- to 50-foot boats.
Brad Van Liew, shown here on the Balance Bar, survived the churing seas and wide-open skies of the Around Alone sailboat race, helped by his wife Meaghan. He finished third in his class.
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Every four years international competitors begin the first leg of the race in Charleston and head for Cape Town, South Africa. After a mandatory layover there, the fleet restarts for leg two, a dip into the treacherous southern ocean, ending in New Zealand. Leg three includes the most demanding part of the race, rounding the nautical summit of Cape Horn. Arriving in the destination resort of Punta del Este, Uruguay, the sailors prepare for leg four, the homestretch back to the U.S.
BRAD'S GREATEST setback came on the last leg of the journey. “I hit some rough seas and the mast broke off,” he says. “It took me four hours to clear the wreckage before being able to sail back to Punta del Este using a jury rig.”
Determined to see him complete the race, Balance Bar and Meaghan raised the money necessary to build a new mast. Team members of other sailors pitched in as well, supplying equipment and labor. “It felt like the world picked me up by the scruff of the neck and said, ‘You will not stop here,’ ” Brad says.
There were risks beyond the sea. Meaghan met Brad at all three stops, but “a lot of people are not able to keep their relationships intact,” Brad says. One e-mail from him during the race: “My Valentine’s Day brings me 40 knots of arctic southerly winds and
20-foot seas. This is not exactly cuddling up with my wife!”
The couple knew exactly what they were getting into, says Meaghan. “When I met Brad, I knew he was going to end up doing this at some time in his life. But we’ve enjoyed it and it’s been incredibly worthwhile.”
The Van Liews are planning other sailing competition adventures. Information about them and their sport is available on their Web site, (www.oceanracing.org).
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