Month: September 2012

THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION

Life is what happens to you while you wait for the next thing. So the saying goes.

When do you start? That is the most frequently asked question. The answer is, I have already started, I started when I got the idea to sail around the world non-stop in a boat shorter than 3 meter.

Designing and building is part of the process. It is now that the difficult vital decisions are made. It is now that I have to find money for the building. Like many hard things, the process gives lot of satisfaction.

… 3, 2, 1, go! When the rockets fire there are not many decisions left for the astronauts. At that time most of the difficult vital decisions has been made. At that time the money for building the rocket has been found.

Click once or twice on the picture to enlarge

Desiring to secure her later years financially, and avoid the poorhouse Annie Edson Taylor on her 63rd birthday 1901 stepped into a barrel she had designed and went over the Niagara falls. At that time all the difficult vital decisions had been made. At that time she had found the money for building the barrel.

At that time when the lid was screwed on she had no more decisions to make.

When I leave for my circumnavigation I will have more options than Annie. I just have to keep going. It will mainly be a question of the thickness of my skull bone.

Now I will not be pushed to speed up my enjoyable work. The building of YRVIND TEN is part of my satisfying life.

Regards Yrvind.

When i was out in my kayak I saw a swan. She might have the same displacement lenght ratio as my boat the YRVIND TEN.

I said to myself.

Back home I got some numbers. A swans weight is 12 to 15 kilos, her designed waterline lenght is about 2 feet that gives her a displacement lenght ratio of 1500 for 12 kilos.

Now YRVIND TEN got a ten feet waterline her estimated weight is 1.5 tons. That gives her the same displacement lenght ratio of 1500. Now a swan is quite a fast mover. Scale her up 5 times and her hull speed increases by the square root of the scale or 2,236. The hull speed of a swan is 1,35 times the square root of two, her waterline lenght. That is 1.909.    2.236×1.909=4.269 knots. That speed will give me 100 miles a day. That is in ideal conditions. If I get half 50 miles a day I bee happy.

An other thing. I did climb the mast to inspect the damage done by the bridge I hit trailing her home from Stockholm. The mast was hit about 20 cm / 8 inches from the top. It was a big bang but the solidly built mast is still in good health.

Regards Yrvind.

The Nyköping talk was a disaster. The organiser had no remote control, but worse, their computer had a mind of its own. My carefully sorted pictures came up out of control, some were distorted and the last ones was absent.

However the room was filled to capacity and public was kind and even seemed to enjoy my improvised talk.

I was guided out of town. My guide was told not to go under low bridges as I was trailing my boat with the mast standing. He misunderstood the instructions.

A big bang made me jump as we passed under a bridge. It was all dark. At 50 km/hour my mast had hit the bridge. The shroud knots had  some flex and no damage was done. A good test for stormy waters.

Apart from little incidents like the above one a trailable boat is a wounderful thing. It allowed me to bring my boat up to Stockholm over the week end. Not to mention last year when I trailed her to Ireland for a good start on my transat. She came back to Sweden from Martinique in a container and again I trailed her from Göteborg to Västervik.

An outher time I trailed an outher boat to La Trinite France then sailed her to Newfoundland. From St. Johns she went on the road to Maine where I sailed her a few weeks before bringing her by car to Newport R.I. where she was sailed. Finally on the road again to New Jersey and shipping her back to Sweden.

Trailing extends your cruising ground enormously

I strongly suggest a trailer able boat. Give her a strong bottom that you can let her down on concrete stone and other hard surfaces. Mine has a bronze sole, strong, antifouling, and a good earth plate for your lightning conductor.

Below a bonus picture. Me and my co-author selling the new book Den unge den gamle och havet at the boat show.

Regards Yrvind.

To day was the last day from the boat show. Beppe, my webmaster took two pictures of the boat with the sign from The European boating direktivs message. It translates that its illegal to sell the boat and to use it. Crazy ideas in a crazy world.

Click once or twice to enlarge.

The text enlarged

Tomorrow I will give a talk in Nyköping.

Regards Yrvind

After two days at the boat show I have been experiencing not much but rain. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunshine.

Regards Yrvind.