Russian sailor Roman Titov was sailing south past Rockall, several hundred miles to the west of Scotland on the first day of January in 2022. In a storm that local fishermen confirmed as one of the worst they’d ever seen, his 33ft Colin Archer-type cutter Vperyod (Onward in English) was pitchpoled, losing her mast and bowsprit, and suffering considerable damage.
Roman himself took several blows to the face as he hung over the bow trying to release the bobstay chain on which the mast was caught, threatening to hole the yacht’s hull. It took him two days of hard work with a bucket to clear the water from the cabin, water that had destroyed his electrics and drained almost all the charge from his batteries.
In an extraordinary saga of self-rescue, Roman managed to bring his yacht into the port of Ullapool on Loch Broom, with no outside help whatsoever. This took 17 days of brilliant seamanship under the most basic jury rig imaginable (see pbo.co.uk/titov).
Navy training to the fore
He was constantly cold and wet, had no hot food, no means of communication and no navigational aids except for a small-scale coastal paper chart. He also knew that with the battery almost drained, and the alternator put out of action by water damage, he had only one chance to start and utilise his engine.
Roman, who was in hisway he overcame his predicament, literally presenting himself at the door of the Ullapool Harbourmaster’s office before anybody had any idea of what had happened.
