REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PRAGUE -- A 62-year-old Czech man plans to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal to Florida, the United States, on a wooden raft, local media reported on Friday.
The man's name is Jozef Bohac.
"The famous Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl was sailing across the Atlantic on vessels made of balsa wood or papyrus. But no one has ever managed to sail from one continent to another on a raft made of several beams tied together," Bohac was quoted as saying.
He said he was inspired by Czech traveller Eduard Ingris who was sailing on the Pacific Ocean on a raft in the 1950s.
Bohac's voyage is to cover several thousand kilometers. His raft is made of 16 spruce beams connected by steel cables. It will have a platform with a superstructure and two masts. Food, water and other personal belongings will be preserved in barrels.
Bohac is an experienced "sailor" who has been travelling on big sailboats. He has already built one catamaran and reconstructed another one for diving, along with Czech traveler and documentary director Steve Lichtag.
The cost for the project is estimated at 400,000 crowns (about 20,000 U.S. dollars). Bohac said he would welcome sponsors and also would like to try crowdfunding.
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