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24 MN May 2011 In the fall of 2010 a group of boat builders and a Discovery Channel star made an 8,000 mile record run in a Zodiac RIB from the North Atlantic, through the Northwest Passage, to the Pacific Northwest. It started with David Smith, President of Professional Components Ltd., parent company of Shockwave Suspension Seating Solutions, who developed the ICE (Integrated Control Environment) console, a cockpit for a small craft that encapsulates the helmsmen, crew and all the instru- ments. This thee-axis shock miti- gation system caught the attention of Bear Grylls, star of the Discovery Channel’s “Man vs. Wild,” as he was planning a trip through the Northwest Passage. “Bear Grylls called me from England,” David Smith said, “and he had taken delivery of an RIB and he said if they took it through the Northwest Passage it was just going to pound them to death. They needed an RIB and suspen- sion system that would per- mit them to do the average speeds they required for this mission.” Grylls wanted to know if Smith could help build him a boat for his journey. Smith said, “This trip was actually him and his buddies getting together and going on a holiday. Although we did shoot video throughout the whole trip, that was not really the intention. He and some of his buddies decided it would be a real adventure to do the Northwest Passage and that’s how the whole thing came about.” Smith already had a Zodiac H1100 with 3,300 hp Mercury engines that was being used to test Shockwave marine suspension seats. He stripped the boat down and rebuilt it adding extra fuel tanks to extend the range to 1,000 miles. Then a group of men, including Grylls, sup- port crew, and Smith (who piloted the boat for most of the trip), set out on a voyage that took 300 hours of run- ning time over two months. “We went and looked in the Guinness Book of World Records. No one had done it. It’s the first vessel through the Northwest Passage on outboard engines. It’s the first RIB through the Northwest Passage. We defi- nitely set many speed records along the way.” The crew traveled from Barrow, Alaska to the Aleutian Islands in 48 hours. The trip’s legs consist- ed of St. Johns, Canada to Pond Inlet; Pond Inlet to Polotuck; Polotuck to Kodiak, Alaska; and finally Kodiak to Victoria, Canada. “Because of the sea condi- tions and the lengths of the different legs, in one instance, we didn’t sleep for two and a half days. We went from Barrow to Nome, fueled up in Nome, and went from Nome through the Bering Sea to the Aleutian Islands,” Smith said. “We were in some horrendous seas.” “We pushed this boat much harder than any RIB has every been pushed before in terms of speed and endurance and rough weather conditions. We came out of it with full marks.” To make the trip successful, Smith said, “we need- Cover Story A Northwest Passage Record Run The Zodiac H-1100 Mach 2. The route taken by the Zodiac H-1100 Mach 2 and crew.
