| |
|
Fedor on board Modern University for the Humanities
during training
in the English Channel
Fedor Konioukhov is a 46 year old Russian sportsman. He will be sailing in Class I aboard Modern University for Humanities. His experiences and achievements span a wide variety of outdoors activities. He has a unique background for Around Alone having skiied to both the North and South Pole and having circled the globe via sailboat.
He will sail in Class I in a 60 foot Fa designed boat. This boat was built in Hungary in 1990 by Nandor Fa. The boat sailed the 1992-93 Vendee Globe taking 5th place.
Fedor's sailing includes several circumnavigation's. In 1991 he single-handed non stop from Sydney Australia returning to Sydney 240 days later. His boat was a Swanson 36. In 1994 he undertook a west about circumnavigation. This time he sailed from and returned to Taiwan. His time on a 58 foot Formosa Ketch was 508 days. Note, that his voyage was west about or in general, upwind against prevailing winds. So, the Around Alone race will be Konioukhov's 3rd solo circumnavigation. In 1996-97 he returned to sailing. He was the team leader on the Russian entry in the Grand Mistral class for the Sardinia Cup, Gotland Runt and Cowes Week.
Fedor has journeyed to both the North and South Pole. In 1988 and 1989 he was part of Russian skiing expeditions to the North Pole. In 1990 he was the first Russian to reach the North Pole Alone. In 1996 he became the first Russian to journey to the South Pole solo.
Konioukhov also has extensive experience in mountaineering. In 1992 he climbed the worlds highest summit Mt. Everest which is 29,028 feet. Also in 1992 he climbed Mt. Elbrus the highest mountain in Europe.
In 1996 while in Antarctica he climbed Mt. Winston that continents premiere summit. 1996 also saw him climb Mt. Kilimangara Africa's highest peak, and Mt. Kostsushko Austrailia's highest mountain. He finished off his 1997 climbing by going up Mt. McKinley North America's highest mountain. This climb signified Fedor's completing the climbing of the '7 Summits'. He had now climbed each continents highest mountain.
All of these adventures have produced several books. One is "My spirit on the deck of Karaana". Karaana means quite place and also served as the name of his first boat. The book covers his first solo circumnavigation which took place in 1991. His second book is "All my Solo Adventures". This covers a variety of his expeditions.
Fedor's sponsor and boat name is the Modern University for Humanities. This is the largest university in Russia with 40 branches. They have a special and unique educational program for people far away from population centers. These are people like: sailors, fisherman, miners,and geologists etc. They call this program, 'long distance education in extreme conditions'. Fedor's Around Alone voyage will be a test of this program. Once Fedor completes the test of the program, it will go into wide scale use. For more information on the Modern University for the Humanities click here.
Upon completion of Around Alone, Fedor will take on the challenge of The Race. This shapes up as the ultimate contest of extreme sailing. There are to be no limits on the size of the boat. It is scheduled to start December 31 2000.