PETER FREEMAN (born 1951)
Laivina

In October, 1984, Freeman left Victoria in his 32' sloop Laivina to sail single-handed non-stop around the world. Nine months later (236 days) he arrived back in Victoria having beaten the previous record for such a feat. This adventure began when Freeman and his wife built the Laivina in Dunedin, New Zealand. In 1981 they sailed for Canada, with a stopover in Australia where he built a self-steering system. After one and a half years of preparation, he set sail from Victoria with 10 months of supplies aboard. Heavy seas soon broke the self-steering gear which he had repaired in Santa Barbara, California. Sailing southward across the Pacific, he passed Easter Island and proceeded to Cape Horn. From the Cape he sailed eastward along the 50th parallel to Kergulen Island. While in the southern ocean he endured a series of gales and storms with waves reaching 80' high. He continued on to Hobart, Tasmania, then to Dundedin, returning across the Pacific by Mururoa Atoll and finally back to Santa Barbara and Victoria.

The sloop Laivina mmbc 985.48.1P

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