Amphibious Land Rovers and Sir Ranulph Fiennes

In 1998, to celebrate their 50th anniversary, Land Rover planned an audacious 'world-first' expedition from London to New York via the treacherous Bering Strait that lies between Russia and Alaska.
During 1997, 12 months in advance of the planned expedition and led by the renowned explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, along with adventurer Mac Mackenney, 3 Land Rover mechanics and Canadian Gordon Thomas, the team undertook a reconnaissance trip to Wales, Alaska on the very edge of the Bering Strait, overlooking Russia.
In addition to testing their tracked Land Rover Defenders across ice and snow, the team also undertook amphibious trials of a LRPC (Land Rover Powered Catamaran) that was designed to carry one Defender across any bodies of water.
One of the engineers responsible for building the LRPC back in the UK flew out to Alaska to watch the testing in progress. Here he describes how the raft unit was built and designed to operate...