Crew
Chris Kobush
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Chris was born in Germany in 1984. He is an established professional sailor with over 200,000 nm under his belt after twenty years in the industry.
In 2018 he skippered the Chinese entry Qingdao into third place in the 2017-18 Clipper Round The World Yacht Race, founded by the British sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Since 2019 he has been working for Skip Novak's Pelagic Expeditions skippering both of his iconic high latitude yachts: Pelagic and Pelagic Australis and since 2022 the Vinson of Antarctica in the southern theatre. His high latitude experience includes 55,000 nm to some of the most remote islands in the world (South Sandwich Islands, Gough Island, Marion Island, Tristan Da Cunha and South Georgia) as well as expeditions to Greenland, Arctic Canada and the Antarctic Peninsula supporting film teams, scientists, photographers, mountaineers and sailors keen to explore these regions.
His marine industry experience also ranges from racing classic yachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean to skippering teams in some of the most iconic offshore races in the world including the Fastnet Race and Sydney to Hobart. In addition he has experience in worldwide yacht deliveries, RYA sail training and skippering superyachts. With a commercially endorsed MCA/RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate, Chris can skipper yachts up to 200GT worldwide. Always trying to advance his skills and knowledge, Chris also holds all required modules for the MCA Officer of the Watch 3000GT. He is one of two skippers for Vinson.
Besides his passion for sailing Chris enjoys hiking, running, and cycling, and in 2016 completed an epic 5600km, four-month ride through Australia and New Zealand. His love for the sea extends beyond being on it but also in it as a professional Divemaster.
Paul Guthrie
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Paul was born in France in 1985 and grew up sailing around the Indian Ocean, where his parents led marine archaeology expeditions and other commercial diving projects. His upbringing on a classic sailboat left a strong impression, leading him to start a sailing career in 2009.
During his formative years working on classic schooners, Paul developed a set of traditional seamanship skills and a special passion for remote sailing. Still a keen classic boat sailor, Paul takes every opportunity to participate in the regatta circuits around Europe and the Caribbean, namely Cannes Régates Royales, Monaco Classic Week, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona, Antigua Classics and the Rolex Maxi Worlds in Porto Cervo.
Throughout his career Paul has cruised extensively around the Mediterranean, Caribbean, South East Asia and has completed several high latitude trips including a North West Passage transit in 2018, a particularly challenging year when only two sailing vessels successfully made the transit. This was a very involved six month project, from the commissioning of this new vessel in Cherbourg to laying her up for the winter in Kodiak, Alaska.
In January 2023 Paul joined Vinson of Antarctic to help prepare and take part in the Beagle Channel cruise and the subsequent passage back to Cape Town. He returned as skipper in 2024 to cruise the Beagle Channel once more, before sailing Vinson on the round trip across the South Atlantic, stopping in Tristan da Cunha on the way to Cape Town. He sailed Vinson of Antarctica down to South Georgia for the 2024/25 season opening trip, supporting a group of ski-mountaineers. Paul skippered the maiden Falklands charter on Amundsen in early 2025, before a passage to Cape Town, and again supported a ski-mountaineering expedition on Amundsen in September 2025, Amundsen’s first trip to South Georgia. Paul is one of the two skippers on Amundsen, and holds the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate.
Luca Novak
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Born in 2003, Luca was raised in Cape Town, South Africa.
He was introduced to dinghy sailing from a very young age, learning how the wind worked and the basics of sail trim on Optimist dinghies and sailing as ‘shotgun crew’ on his Dad’s Laser for adventure sailing in Langebaan Lagoon. After getting bored ‘bailing out’ the Optimist he took up surfing in a big way, as well as lifeguarding duties on the Cape Town beaches. Family holidays were in Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands on board the original Pelagic.
After leaving high school Luca apprenticed as a joiner in Cape Town, before heading off to a forestry company in northern Germany to work as a tree feller. Realising he preferred to spend his time near the ocean, he was soon back in Cape Town starting his RYA certification process in preparation to join Pelagic again for a summer in Greenland in 2023. Under skipper Tor Bovim he gained some valuable experience in high latitude sailing having cruised the entire navigable west coast up from Cape Farvel to 78 degrees north, returning to Maine via Baffin Island and the Canadian Maritimes.
Realising expedition sailing as a possible career path, a great way to travel and to avoid a billet at a desk, he attended The Landing School in Maine in the ‘marine systems’ module to advance his technical abilities. In May of 2025 he joined Vinson of Antarctica for the refit in Cape Town and then delivered her back to the Falklands to start the 25/26 southern season as a full time crew member. He currently holds a RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore certificate.
Jacob Bonnig
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Jacob was born on the southeast coast of England in 1991. His journey started by sailing small traditional yachts on the Norfolk Broads during the summers, a childhood hobby that quickly grew into a lifelong dedication to the maritime world.
Recognizing sailing's potential as a profession, he enrolled in the MCA-approved BSc degree in Marine Studies (Ocean Yachting) at the University of Plymouth. This foundational program provided him with a broad range of technical skills, including advanced navigation, meteorology, yacht design, and maritime law.
Jacob’s sailing career has been a tour of extremes. It ranges from the pristine, almost surgically clean environment of luxury superyacht operations—where meticulous standards are a prerequisite—to the grueling, high-stakes competition of the Clipper Ventures Round the World Yacht Race. Within Clipper, his roles spanned the full spectrum: working as the Fleet Bosun for the racing fleet when in port, serving as a dedicated Training Skipper, and acting as First Mate on several legs of the 17/18 race. His résumé is rounded out by significant time spent on global expedition sailing, where his navigational skills, self-sufficiency, and resilience were constantly tested in remote waters.
When the opportunity arose to pass on genuine seamanship, he took it. He has demonstrated the ability to lead and instruct, successfully running RYA courses in various corners of the world, including teaching new sailors in China.
When Jacob is not navigating the high seas, his personal life is equally anchored in adventure. He is an avid outdoor enthusiast who enjoys the global perspective his career provides, utilizing his international travel to pursue hobbies such as world-class fishing, chasing waves for surfing, and swapping the deck for the dirt trails to enjoy hiking and mountain biking.
In 2025, Jacob joined Amundsen in Cape Town as First Mate, bringing his commitment to safety and high-level operations to bear on all future voyages. He holds an RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate.
Justino Garcia-Borreguero
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Born in Bilbao, Spain in 1977 ‘Justi’ comes from a family with relatives in the Merchant Civil Navy. Since childhood, he has been naturally oriented towards the water.
Before becoming a professional sailor, he attended university and earned a degree in marketing and business. After a few years of working in different marketing jobs, he realized that being in an office was not his way, so he decided to quit everything and go to the Isle of Wight to get the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) training and start his sailing career.
Since then, he has been involved in different projects, including Oceana’s Research Boat, the IMOCA Pakea Bizkaia Vendée Globe, the IMOCA C.L.A.S. Barcelona World Race shore team, an America’s Cup crew member for tourist tours in México, racing the Big Boat Series in San Francisco and as a Skipper on private sailboats in Europe and America.
Since March 2022, he has been part of the Vinson sailing crew as first mate and then skipper on sailing expeditions to South Georgia, Antarctica, and South Atlantic crossings. In 2022, in Cape Town, he was the boat captain on Vinson’s first refit and in 2025, on Amundsen's first refit. In 2025, he was appointed as one of the two skippers on Amundsen. Justino holds the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Ocean certificate.
When he is not on expeditions, his home base is Baja California Sur (México), where he enjoys road cycling, functional training and water sports such as surfing, wing foil and diving.
John de Wet
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John was born in 1983 in Cape Town, South Africa. Always drawn to the ocean, he spent his formative years surfing round the Cape Peninsula. As a youngster he visited a yacht that was being built in a neighbour’s garden. He was struck by the possibilities that a craft of this nature could provide for travel and was intrigued by the construction process which stayed with him and inspired his involvement in this industry.
After school he trained and qualified as a plumbing and heating engineer. He then emigrated to the UK to pursue work opportunities. After a sabbatical where he travelled across Asia he returned to Europe and had a career shift, training and working as a researcher in the security industry.
A decade later he returned to Cape Town and worked with the local ambulance service, qualifying as an Intermediate Life Support Medic. Around this time he began to learn about boat building and sailing, which led to him working in a couple of Cape Town boatyards including Southern Wind Shipyard. In 2018 John met Skip and Jennifer on a dock in a chance encounter which led to his involvement in the 2019 Pelagic Australis refit. He was then invited back to work on Vinson for her first refit in 2022.
He has been involved in each refit since and the Atlantic crossings from Cape Town back to the Falklands. In 2024 he was involved in the final stages of Amundsen’s build and launch in the Netherlands and maiden voyage to the south. He has sailed on two expeditions to South Georgia and one around The Falklands.
John has a broad skill base which is an asset in this sort of project. He continues to actively develop these in his time off, recently graduating from the Ballymaloe Cookery School.
Melissa Du Toit
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Melissa was born in 1989 in the landlocked town of Newcastle, at the foothills of the northern Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa. A competitive equestrian eventer throughout her youth, the call of the ocean would only come much later- after graduating with a degree in History and Politics, and a postgraduate in Marketing, then quickly rejecting the ideas of a conventional job completely.
It was while completing the STCW training courses in Cape Town in 2015, in order to pursue a career in yachting instead, that she first spotted Pelagic Australis in the Waterfront, and knew then that this was the type of boat and sailing to strive toward.
This journey saw her starting out as a stewardess on large motor yachts, later working her way onto the deck aboard larger sailing vessels, completing multiple Atlantic crossings and extensive Mediterranean and Caribbean chartering. After moving through the RYA certification process, she went on further to earn the Officer of the Watch for yachts less than 3000gt, advancing to Chief Mate <3000gt with a commercially endorsed RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate.
In 2022 she joined the Swan 53 “Sterna” as Chief Mate and Navigator in the Ocean Globe Race 2023/24 (OGR), a retro circumnavigation and the first edition of the remake of the original Whitbread Round the World Yacht Races. Using the Cape to Rio Race 2023 as a post-refit shakedown for the Swan, she skippered various legs from Rio to the UK for the start of the OGR via the Caribbean and France, including the second leg of the OGR itself.
The Mate role on Vinson of Antarctica was thus a natural progression, allowing Melissa to expand her high latitude experience. When not sailing she can be found on her parents’ smallholding in Newcastle surrounded by animals, or as a freediving instructor pushing new depths beneath the water rather than on it.
Mariana Esperon
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Mariana was born in 1985 and raised in Sitges, a town south of Barcelona. As a child she sailed and enjoyed the local nature - the Mediterranean Sea was her playground. She grew up sailing on her family's boat, L’isle, a Dufour 31, which became hers in 2011, and she lived on board for several years.
She is the vice president of E.V.A. (Escola de Vela Adaptada del Port d’Aiguadolç), the first sailing school in Spain adapted for people with disabilities, a role she assumed in 2017. The adaptive sailing school is where she began her sailing career in 2001, at the age of 15, as a sailing instructor.
Later on in 2013, she also started working on sailing vessels cruising, and doing deliveries, while continuing building up her passion and skills by working as a crew or mate on large sail yachts and through racing. She has sailed on various boats from classic yachts like the 12m R class to modern performance boats like the Maxi 72 class. Additionally, she has worked as a rigger for Nautor Swan Global Service and on boat refits and restorations.
Mariana's first experience sailing in high latitudes was in Iceland in 2019, which sparked her enthusiasm for remote areas. Since 2022, she has been sailing on Vinson of Antarctica, and since 2025 also on Amundsen. Onboard the Pelagic 77’s, she has crossed the South Atlantic from East to West four times and she has participated in expeditions to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands.
Having sailed over 60,000 nm and continually improving her skills, she holds licenses such as the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore, RYA Powerboat 2, AEC 1, Medical Care Onboard Ship, PADI Advanced Open Water Diver.
Kate Schnippering
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Kate was born in Toronto, Canada in 1988, and grew up in a multi-national family of artists, musicians, adventurers, skiers, divers, and birders. At age 8, she first became captivated by the sea during a family trip to Tofino, meeting a pod of orcas in the thick fog from a Zodiac. During University she studied Computer Science, Studio Art, Japanese and cello.
Interspersing a creative and technical career with adventure, she worked as a software engineer & game designer, bicycled 3800 miles across the USA, earned her PADI Divemaster, and enjoyed most weekends in the backcountry, occasionally climbing high-altitude peaks on rock and glacier. In San Francisco and Nairobi, she spent a decade in early-stage product innovation at human-centered design firm IDEO, leading work across cancer research, youth mental health, ocean plastic monitoring, Martian rover-engineering, robotics, farming education, and compact pickup trucks. As an Executive Director she held significant responsibility to the business, growing client relationships and guiding teams.
Living in the Bay Area, Kate and her husband Sean pursued sailing, chartering with friends. In 2020, they bought Catalina 36 Petrichor, and sailed to the Sea of Cortez for a few seasons. In 2022, Kate joined Vinson of Antarctica’s first passage from Cape Horn to Cape Town by celestial navigation, and later earned her RYA Yachtmaster Offshore & Ocean. Now based in Seattle, Kate and Sean live aboard Petrichor. In 2024, they cruised ~3000nm throughout Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, exploring glacier arms, deep fjords, and braving rapids with blind corners. In the same season, they competed on an Olson 30 in Race to Alaska, 7 non-stop days up the Inside Passage – coming in 2nd in monohulls. Kate joined the crew of Amundsen in 2025, weaving high-latitude sailing & teamwork with storytelling and a close relationship to the natural world.
Tor Bovim
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Tor was born in 1998 and raised south of Cape Town near the Cape of Good Hope. Sailing and all things marine dominated life from the get go with surfing a main passion. His father built an Optimist to keep Tor entertained while he built the 30 ft steel yacht they run as a small-scale charter business from Simonstown. This early involvement with boat construction and exposure to cruising sailors sparked his imagination.
When happily released from school, Tor found himself sailing boats of all kinds in Cape Town and around South Africa’s coast. Making friends with local sailing instructors, Tor found himself moving through the RYA certification process, completing the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate in 2022.
While employed by Southern Wind Shipyard, he met Skip on the dock in Cape Town in 2020. This fortuitous occasion saw him working as crew on Pelagic Australis for the voyages to Gough Island and Marion Island. He used this experience to sail twice more to Gough Island. Joining Pelagic in 2022 for a full summer of sailing to Greenland and Baffin Island. This momentum has continued, sailing Vinson of Antarctica for the expedition to the South Sandwich Islands in 2023 before returning north to skipper Pelagic on her most recent Arctic cruise in the northern summer of 2023 navigating the entire west coast of Greenland and returning via Baffin Island and the Canadian Maritimes to Maine. From September 2025 Tor is one of the two skippers on Vinson of Antarctica.