Richard Wood of Penzance has won the Yachting World-supported Musto International Cruising Awards competition for the account of his cruise through the Northwest Passage from a Dutch harbour in the Aleutian Islands, eastabout to Baffin Island.

This was an episode in the return voyage of the yacht Norwegian Blue from New Zealand to the Scilly Islands.

Richard Wood was crewed by his son ‘Woody’ and daughter-in-law Zoe.

This astonishing feat was accomplished in a 12m steel-hulled cutter designed and built by the owner.

At a special prizegiving ceremony held at the opening day of the Schroders London Boat Show this morning at ExCel, Wood and crew were presented with an exclusive Alan Simpson watercolour of the yacht arriving at Pond Inlet, Baffin Island plus £1,500 worth of Musto clothing and a plaque recording the achievement.

Chatting at the show this morning ‘Woody’ said: “We had a few scary moments but there was one in particular when we got stuck in the ice for 10 days and very nearly ended up there for the winter. Fortunately a storm came though and pulled the ice offshore enough for us to get off. It pipped up to about 40kts and it was our only chance to get off. We count ourselves as very lucky. It was tough crashing though the growlers and bergs in a 40kt breeze but it was our only choice.” Zoe added: “We were sort of preparing ourselves but weren’t looking forward to the 1,000 or so tins of baked beans we had stashed away.”

To read the account of the Woods’ epic voyage watch out for the March issue of Yachting World which will be on sale at the Yachting World stand N1650 at the London boat show next week.