Category: EXLEX THE SAILING CANOE

Hi Friends.

Yesterday I recieved the Divinycell for the hull. Its is 70 mm H 80.

Today with the help of Peter and a ratching strap as clamp we scarfed 3 sheets.

Picture below

We also made a video for my Youtube channel. I suggest that you subscribe as more and more uppdates on the building of Exlex the Canoe Yawl 6.4 meter long 1.4 meter beam will be on video.

To be continued…

Please support Exlex.

Regards Yrvind.

 

Hi everyone.

Friday 13 of August I landed in Copenhagen. Peter and his wife was kindly there and picked me up. 23:30 the same evening I unlocked the door to my apartment. Everything was fine. I did 3 push up to get in shape. I had not done any physical since leaving the flat in late spring.

Next morning I pumped my bycycle and pedaled to my workshop. Everything was fine.

Before leaving I had made a model of the hard chine hull I converted her to soft chine. Next day proud of my country I pinted her blue and yellow.

During my sail in Exlex 2020 and 2021 some of the following thinking have been done. As follows.

After 149 days, nearly five months at sea in Exlex back on land I have decided to go ahead and build Exlex the Canoe Yawl a double ender 6.4 meter long with a beam of 1.28 meter in composite sandwich construction. Starting as soon as I can get the building materials.

Exlex was 5.8 meter long with a beam of 1.23 meter. She had a blunt scow bow and a transom. Long time in her and other small boats have made me realize that I am happy in a small boat.

Exlex had many good properties and a few not so desirable. Some of the properties that will be ameliorated are as follows:

Hull shape, the new boat will be double ender with soft chines. That will reduce resistance and enable me to take storms with her stern facing the wind riding to a sea or para anchor or Jordan series drouge through a stern tube.

She will get much more weather helm. The centerboard and rudder will be moved forward and sail area back in form of a mizzen mast will be added.

The living area, bed and seat will be enclosed by two waterproof bulkheads. On Exlex only the bed was so enclosed and the doors was only splash proof.

The rudder axis will come up foreword of the mizzen mast in a tube making it waterproof. This will bring the steering lines inside easier and make the rudder complex design simpler. The steering lines arrangement will be above the bed and athwartship. There they will not interfere with the drawing board and will be easy acceseble. The jammers will be of good quality.

There will be a deckhouse with a 360° view.

There will be a rudder indicator.

There will be side by side masts, a biplane rig as on the 2018 Exlex. I give her 8 square meter sail area. That is twice as much as on the previous boat. Downwind, the side by side arrangement of the masts ensures that the sails will not blanket each other. That arrangement worked at sea but gave problems in port. That problem is now solved.

The hatches had several issues. Those are easily corrected.

The stowage will be improved. Food will now be in a more protected part of the boat.

There will be some deck space that can be used for seating and standing.

The Canoe Yawl will be 0.6 meter longer than Exlex. Length is however not a good measure of a boats size. Weight is better and she is planned to be a bit lighter than her predecessor about one ton in cruising trim for 60 days or about 5000 miles autonomy average.

It is not easy to visualize what I mean by all this, but gentle reader be patient and bit by bit I will post by post describe them more clearly.
I also now have a youtube channel Sven Yrvind and I suggest that you subscribe to that that you do not miss videos.
Also I thank everyone that has donated to my project. There is a donation Button on this Webb site.

Some photos. Click once or twice to enlarge.

To be continued…

Donations will help.

Regards Yrvind

New post on Youtube

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

Hello friends.

Progress is good due to sleepless nights. The nights that keep me awake brings good ideas.

The bow centerboard is a good idea but it comes with a cost. Maybe 50 kilos and space and controol lines. I think I can live without it relying on near vertical chine runners. I call them chinerunners becouse I belive they work in conjunction with the hull creating a kind of fluid fence redirecting the water that tries around the hull to lee creating a windward force. This is of course specultion. The effect I imagen is similar to the effect of a spoon held under running water with the concave side up. The spoon makes the water splash all over. As a child I found the phenomen interesting.

If you watch the youtube video “Yrvind in Stockholm Archipilago” you will see my yellow chinerunner boat sailing. It was longer wider heavier had less sail area than Matt Laydens Paradox and heeled much less. A chinerunner with horisontal chinerunners should heel to get the chinerunner effect. I sailed the boat in Sweden, I sailed her from Ireland to Madeira, I sailed her from Madeira to Martinique. She did not go well to windward due to lee healm. Very fortunately the last few houers of the many thousands of mile long sail sailing into the two mile long fjord leading to Le Marin I had a gale force head wind gusting 50 knots. Now the yellow boat was in her element. She heeled over and went to windward like a rocket. I nearly missed that experience. I have also sailed daily on Matts Paradox for a month and a few times on Enigma.

Now I hope that the Exlex prototype will guide me to a good position of the chinerunners.

I will take the lines of the bow of the Yellow boat of 2011 mirror them and mowe them apart filling the middle with a prism. The prism is straight edged. Along the edge there will be the chinerunners. I can mowe them back and forth on the prototype untill I find a good balance.

The rope pulling the airlock hatch against the hatch gasket need tension. It have taken me some time to make it work properly. First try did not work well. Secound try work well but was complicated. The present third  works well and is simple as shown in the wideo below.

The video also tells that I am now close to sailing.

Thanks to Mario of Hamburg who kindly paid for my Corona test.

To continue…

Regards Yrvind.

 

The lids for the airlocks have to be very good, waterproof and such tings.

For me that means thick gaskets and large radius. I use closed foam EPDM rubber. I do not use a conventional hinge with a fixed axes. That way I can tension the lid all around.

The present opening is a bit larger than previus ones 40X60 cm with radius of about 11 cm.

The first try showed that there was to much friction in the tensening line, that is tensioned with a home made over the center device.

I am now building rollers for the line, 7 in all to reduce the frictione. I do not have much space in the upper part where the lid turns so this will take some time.

Also the tire on my bicycle was getting to worn a bulge made the wheel bumpy. Before I could get a new tire there was a puncture. I was talking to a man before leaving work and before knowing there was a puncture. He left in his car. I turned to leave on my bike but there was no air. Had I known that I would have asked him for a ride. That would have saved me a 40 minutes walk. Next day he told me that he had a puncture on his car tire. Odd!

I am still trying to get a certificate that I had 2 vaccinations in order to fly to my boat on Madeire. The doctor told me that the policy is to cure sick people not to help people to get sailing. I am working on this bureaucratic problem. hopefully finding a solution soon because I am eager to go sailing the big blue deep endless eternal sea.

Video below.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

To increase seaworthiness I am adding an airlock. There is a video below showing the start.

I use the fore and after peak as airlocks.
I will fit these relatively small spaces with two watertight hatches in series.
Captain Nemo had one on his submarine Nautilus 1869 so the idea is not new. Nowadays its common on submarines and spaceships but not on small cruisers.
I endeavor to make my small cruiser as seaworthy as possible. From the hatches I can reach the masts and sails. Those I do not have to be on deck to reef and unreef. A good thing if I should get old and week. In high latitudes there is the possibility of waves filling the fore or after peak when the hatches are open. Now with the peaks in airlock mode no water will enter the living compartments. I can close the hatch, pump out all the water get dry and enter the living compartment.
1973 I left Sweden in an attempt to round Cape Horn in Bris a 20 feet light displacement double ender. The first part of the route took me north of Scotland, west of Ireland similar to my 2020 sail. For several weeks the weather was heavy. At one time a wave hit the beam with such a force that the boat was flung a long distance to lee. When looking out I noticed that the logline was wrapped around the hull. At an other time one dark night when the wind increased I went up to the mast to reduce sail. Looking back I saw an enormous breaker. I only just had time to sit down cross my legs and arms around the mast, because I was sure that when the breaker hit my small boat she would capsize. But as miracle she just held her course and took of in an enormous surf leaving a monster wake behind her for what seamed a very long time.
When I was back below my arms and back ached.
In the beginning of 1974 I left Mar del Plata Argentina bound for Cape Horn. After a few weeks of sailing south Bris was capsized by a wave hitting her beam. The wind was much less strong than the ones I had had in the Northern North Atlantic. A week later. It was early in the day the wind suddenly increased to hurricane force. I did not worry to much because such sudden winds usually die down quick. Not this one. It just kept blowing with the same intensity for hour after hour. All sails was down and a drouge was streamed om a 150 meter long line. Despite that Bris was pichpoled.
I designed a more seaworthy boat, but it was a long way to my mothers basement where I had built Bris.
An important part was the ventilation system. When Bris had been upside down water had entered. To prevent that from happening again I made the air enter at the bottom of the boat. When the boat is upside down the boats bottom is up in the air hence no water can enter in a capsize or pitchpole. The system works very well and I have written more about it in the manifesto.
Now 2021, 47 years later I am still finding ways to make my boats more seaworthy.

I now had two shots of vaccin I hope to be back in Porto Santo Madeira very soon to do some sailing in the deep, big, blue, eternal, endless, ocean, before I continue working on the Canoe Yawl in the autum. But even though I am vaccinated it seams that I have to get a corona test and that will cost € 200. I try to find a cheaper way.

Below a picture of the what is the start of the coaming.

The airlock video belov. Please comment, subscribe, donate and enjoy.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

I belive that boat should be designed with inherent seaworthiness. That is boat is inherent seaworthy if it has a low level of getting into danger when the weather turns bad. For example my boats have centerboards that can be retracted when running downwind before a storm. That reduces the danger of broaching too. My boats are waterproof upside down, that in combination with freestanding strong masts and a secure place for all items eliminates the problems associated with capsize and pitchpooling. My body is fat adapted thus I do not need to eat or use the bathroom in bad weather. My boats steer themself. That eliminates the need for autopilots and windvanes that can break in strong winds.

I now also design the new Exlex, the Canoe Yawl as a symetrical double ender, . That way she can set a parachute anchor or drouge as desired from aft.

Sailing a boat with that low level of getting into danger when the weather turns bad is relaxing.

Below a video illustrates the thinking.

Thanks to evryone that has donated to support my project in connection with my 82 birthday the 22 of april.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

 

Hi on the 22 of april 2021 I will if everything works out and the good Gods are willing, become 82 years of age. Very good.  A big day for me. Cake will be eaten and even icecream in celebration. Please donate to my cake eating project and to my boatbuilding. Write if your donation is for the cake or for the boat in order that I will know where to put the money.

Update  2021 April 22    My friends at work gave me a cake. Picture below.

My boat project evolves nicely. Much more space than I had imaged. I only need 200 liter for water and 200 liter for 100 kilo food, musli and sardines, and some other stuff. The storage will be plenty more as can be seen in the video link below.

I had not realy planned this but now there is plenty of food to reach New Zealand in 200 days and 2.8 knot average speed from Madeira. The Canoe Yawl, new Exlex, will be 2 meter longer than the 2020 Exlex 7.8 to 5.8 meter, she will have twice as much sail area 8.2 square meter to 4 square meter. She will have the superior side by side biplane rig of the 2018 Exlex. I hope she will be lighter 1000 kilo with food and water compared 1090 for Exlex 2020 reason being she have no 138 kilo bronze plate and her bottom konstruction is much lighter. The near vertical chinerunners will take care of grounding forces. Stability she will get from water and batteries. The water I drink will be replaced by saltwater of wich there is a good supply. About twice a month the water in the jerrycans will be transfered to the 18 one liter bottles.

She will have pivoting centerboard instead of daggerboard, more easy to handle. She will have superior inner doors and many more improvements. Things are looking bright.

I now have two shots of vaccination. 18 March and 16 April. In a few weeks more time I have less risk of Corona. Then I try to fly to Porto Santo Madeira to do a summer sailing in the Atlantic going nowhere particular just floting around enjoing the deep blue endless eternal sea. When food and water is getting low I will head for Horta Azores with the plan to ship the boat to Sweden.

September 2021 I plan to continue the prototype, hopefully having it fit for sailing summer 2022. September.  2022 I intend to start the real composite boat. Work carefully taking my time sailing the prototype in the summers incorporating knowledge gained in the real product.

Below is a link to a video.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

Stovage is not a very exciting subject, but a small cruiser with the stovage problem well solved is not very exciting in a storm and that is desirable.

A place for every thing and every thing in its place is a question of details, hundreds of details and to secure everything takes time so progress is not very fast.

This boat is a mockup a prototype so some may ask why go into all the details. I say there is always interference. There is always something unforeseen turning up and destrying the best made plans.

Stovage is a subject I will come back to again and again. Good stovage is essential for a seaworthy offshore boat.

Blow is a video about my arrangement.

Subscribe to my youtube chanel and donate on my website.

To be contiued…

Regards Yrvind