SV MULAN
BUILT FOR THE HIGH LATITUDES
Garcia Exploration 45 · Aluminium Expedition Yacht
Mulan is my home, my expedition yacht, and the boat carrying this journey into the high latitudes.
She is a Garcia Exploration 45, a 48-foot aluminium sailing yacht built in France and launched in 2025.
I chose her for one reason above all:
I wanted a boat capable of taking me further.
North to Svalbard.
Across the North Atlantic to Greenland.
And next —
through the Canadian Arctic toward the Northwest Passage and Alaska.
[ DISCOVER MULAN ]
[ FOLLOW THE EXPEDITION ]
WHY MULAN?
I WASN'T LOOKING FOR THE MOST LUXURIOUS BOAT.
I WAS LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT BOAT.
When I began searching for my next yacht, I already knew the kind of sailing I wanted to do.
Long passages.
Remote coastlines.
Cold water.
High latitudes.
Places where marinas, repair facilities and outside assistance may be far away.
So my priorities were different.
I wanted strength.
Protection.
Practicality.
Shallow-draft capability.
Storage.
Comfort for long periods at sea.
And a boat that could become home for months at a time.
I travelled through Europe looking at different aluminium expedition yachts.
Eventually, I chose the Garcia Exploration 45.
And I named her Mulan.
THE BOAT
GARCIA EXPLORATION 45
Length: approximately 48 ft / 14.88 m
Hull: Aluminium
Keel: Centreboard
Rig: Cutter Rig
Configuration: Deck Saloon
Protection: Hard Dodger
Windows: Double-glazed
Interior: Insulated for long-distance cruising
Safety: Watertight compartments
Mulan was designed for bluewater cruising and sailing in demanding environments.
But specifications alone were not why I chose her.
What mattered was how those features worked together at sea.
01
ALUMINIUM HULL
Strength where it matters.
For the type of sailing I wanted to do, the aluminium hull was one of the most important considerations.
High-latitude sailing brings different risks.
Floating ice.
Remote anchorages.
Uncharted or poorly surveyed waters.
And places where assistance may be a long way away.
In 2025 and 2026, Mulan sailed through Arctic and Greenland waters where contact with floating ice was a real part of navigation.
The strength of the hull does not remove risk.
It gives us another layer of confidence while operating in environments where careful seamanship remains essential.
STRONG BOAT.
CAREFUL DECISIONS.
Both matter.
02
CENTREBOARD
Deep water when we need it. Shallow water when we don't.
Mulan has a lifting centreboard rather than a conventional fixed deep keel.
This gives the boat flexibility when exploring shallow anchorages and remote coastal areas.
For expedition sailing, that matters.
A shallow-draft boat can potentially access places that would be difficult for a conventional deep-keel yacht.
The centreboard also changes the way the boat responds if it encounters the bottom.
During our 2025 expedition, Mulan touched ground in difficult conditions.
The lifting centreboard helped reduce the consequences of that contact.
It was a reminder that expedition features are not theoretical.
Sometimes you understand their value only when something goes wrong.
03
CUTTER RIG
More options when conditions change.
Mulan is cutter-rigged, giving us different sail combinations as wind and sea conditions change.
On a long offshore passage, conditions rarely stay the same.
Twenty knots can become thirty.
A comfortable sail plan can become too much sail.
At night, in poor visibility or in deteriorating weather, reducing sail early can be one of the most important decisions on board.
The cutter rig gives us flexibility to balance the boat and reduce sail without relying on a single large headsail.
For me, this is not about sailing faster.
It is about having options.
04
HARD DODGER
Protection for the people sailing the boat.
In cold environments, crew protection matters.
Wind chill, spray, rain and hours on watch all take energy from the people on board.
Mulan's hard dodger provides a protected watchkeeping position while maintaining visibility around the boat.
On long passages through the North Sea, Norwegian waters, the North Atlantic and Greenland, that protection has made a real difference.
A high-latitude boat is not only about protecting the hull.
It also has to protect the crew.
05
DECK SALOON
Seeing the outside world from inside.
One of the features I particularly value on Mulan is the deck saloon.
From inside the boat, we can maintain a view outside without always being exposed to the weather.
That matters in cold climates.
It also changes daily life at anchor.
In Greenland, we could sit inside a warm boat and still look out at icebergs moving through the anchorage.
For a boat that becomes home for months at a time, this is more than a luxury.
It changes how you live aboard.
06
INSULATION & DOUBLE-GLAZED WINDOWS
Designed for life beyond summer sailing.
Cold-weather sailing is not only about what happens on deck.
Condensation, heat loss and dampness affect life below deck as well.
Mulan's insulated interior and double-glazed windows help create a more protected living environment during extended high-latitude voyages.
When you live on board for months,
comfort is not simply about luxury.
Rest is part of safety.
A warm, dry crew makes better decisions than an exhausted one.
07
WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS
Preparing for what you hope never happens.
Mulan has watertight compartments at the bow and stern.
They are features I hope never become necessary.
But expedition sailing is partly about preparing for low-probability, high-consequence situations.
When travelling into remote waters, redundancy and compartmentalisation matter.
Because the further you sail from conventional support,
the more self-reliant the boat and crew need to become.
EXPEDITION PROVEN
TWO SEASONS. TWO HIGH-LATITUDE JOURNEYS.
Mulan was launched in France in 2025.
She did not spend her first seasons sailing short distances close to home.
She went north.
2025
FRANCE → SVALBARD
France
United Kingdom
Scotland
North Sea
Norway
Arctic Circle
Svalbard
Approximately 79°N
During the season, Mulan experienced:
Long offshore passages
25–30 knot headwinds
3-metre seas
30+ knot conditions
Fog and night sailing
Frequent sail changes and reefing
Remote anchorages
High-latitude operations
The first expedition taught us a great deal about both the boat and ourselves.
2026
ICELAND → EAST GREENLAND
The next season took Mulan across the North Atlantic and Denmark Strait to East Greenland.
We sailed into a very different environment.
Icebergs were no longer something in the distance.
They became part of everyday navigation.
Mulan sailed through iceberg-filled waters and into remote Greenland fjords, including:
Tasiilaq
Sermilik Fjord
Johan Petersen Fjord
We anchored near ice.
We navigated between icebergs.
We watched ice move around the boat.
And sometimes, smaller pieces of ice made contact with the aluminium hull.
Greenland gave me a much deeper understanding of what it means to operate an expedition yacht in high latitudes.
THE BOAT IS ONLY PART OF THE EQUATION
A STRONG BOAT DOES NOT MAKE THE ARCTIC SAFE.
This is important.
No boat makes high-latitude sailing risk-free.
Aluminium does not mean we can ignore ice.
A centreboard does not mean we can ignore depth.
Technology does not replace seamanship.
The boat is one part of a larger system:
Boat
Crew
Weather
Ice
Navigation
Maintenance
Judgement
And sometimes the most important capability on board is simply knowing when to wait.
LIFE ON MULAN
NOT JUST AN EXPEDITION YACHT.
HOME.
For months each year, Mulan is not simply the boat I sail.
She is where we sleep.
Cook.
Eat.
Plan routes.
Repair equipment.
Download weather.
Edit footage.
Talk.
Laugh.
Sometimes argue.
Recover after difficult passages.
And prepare to leave again.
Life on an expedition boat is a mixture of extraordinary and completely ordinary moments.
One hour you may be navigating between icebergs.
The next you may be fixing a pump, cooking dinner or trying to dry wet clothes.
That is the reality I want to share.
Not only where Mulan goes —
but what it actually takes to live and sail there.
TECHNOLOGY & SELF-RELIANCE
A SMALL BOAT. A COMPLEX SYSTEM.
Long-distance sailing requires much more than sails.
Navigation.
Weather routing.
Power generation.
Communications.
Fresh water.
Heating.
Engine systems.
Pumps.
Safety equipment.
Spare parts.
Tools.
Food.
Fuel.
Everything has to work together.
And when something stops working, there may not be a technician nearby.
On Mulan, maintenance is part of expedition life.
The objective is not to build a boat on which nothing ever breaks.
That boat does not exist.
The objective is to understand the systems well enough to: