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Yrvind and Exlex at sea

Many followers of this website have been worried about Yrvind when they look at his tracker. His track looks sometimes as he is trying to send us some mysterious message from the sea.  Has he fallen out of the boat, may someone ask, or is it something wrong with the boat? Yrvind is fine. He enjoy him self very much out there. He is at sea where he likes to be, a place he has been so many times before. Of course he struggle with tuff conditions, he is wet, it’s cold and he has a lot to worry about. But that is a normal situation for him.

One of the reason to his wobbly progress is that the boat can’t go up wind to an acceptable degree. The memorable follower of this website may remember that he just tested Exlex during last year’s sailings and the boat sailed acceptably against the wind. Yes, that’s correct. But now Exlex is heavy loaded. The weight balance is bad. 

Too much weight at the stern. To much food, to much equipment etc. There is also a problem to lock the rudder from inside the boat. That’s very critical when it comes to make the boat going steady on course. The locking mechanism slips. He is very self-critical for all these short comings.

And there are calms. Remember, Yrvinds does not have an engine. When the wind is very light it happens that the current set him back. That was the case after he left the Norwegian coast.

Because how Exlex performs, he is also afraid of oil platforms and lee shore. He want to keep a long distance. That make him stop and wait for the right winds to take him safely away from these dangers.

But there are also good things. The boat behave very well in ruff sea conditions. There were two situations when he had a nock down, but the boat did handle that perfect. She doesn’t need any micro management and steer nicely without wind wane or rubber bands.

Yrvind lets us know that he feels good, he is in no hurry and he isn’t going anywhere. He just want to be out at the sea. And soon he is sailing warmer waters. He takes it as a stoic person, he says. He is also working on the next boat design and let us know he had make great progress with all new experiences he got so far. He greets and feel grateful for the interests people shows him.

/Beppe

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Status update 1 from the sea

Yrvind can write short messages with his tracker. This was received yesterday.

I am on my way. Plenty of food and water onboard. Unfortunatly most have to be stored aft.That immerses the transom. Decreasing severely speed and vindward performance. I have only made 110 miles good since 27 june. A conseqence is that I have to keep lots of distance to Shetland and Färöarna. Its cold here at lat N 62.

Good thing. I have no destination and plenty of time. I enjoy the sail plenty. I have 10 000 books, paper in plenty to draw and calculate next design. She be much faster and have more load capacity. I got already many new good ideas.

Yrvind

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WEIGHTS OLD AND NEW COMPARED

The weight of new Exlex is 660 kilos.

I plan to use 0.5 kilo food and 1 kilo water, maybee 0.6 kilo food and 0.9 water daily. If test sails show that Exlex makes decent speed I hope to sail to Australia via Argentina in three passages. I calculate with at least 2 knots speed, hopefully faster.

First Dingle Ireland to Porto Santo Madeira 1200 miles 25 days. Provision 38 kilos. Weight of boat and provisions 700 kilos.

Secound Madeira to Mar del Plata Argentina 5500 miles 115 days. Provisions 172 kilos. Weight of boat and provisions 832 kilos.

Third Argentina to Australia 8000 miles 167 days. Provisions 250 kilos. Weight of boat and provisions 910 kilos.

Previus Exlex had a weight of 1168 kilos provisoned for New Zealand. I had to do a restart in Madeira. The upcoming voyage have more easy stages and the boat is much lighter, her center of gravity is much lower, her lines are sweater. She also have a toppmast and a topsail, her beam is increased from 1.04 cm to 1.22, she is much roomier.

My plans for Next Design are lenght 8.4 meter beam 1.4 meter 1.5 tons loaded. If I get old I will add an electric engine as a complement to the yuloh. She will have better autonomy.

Next Design

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

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MY STUFF

My stuff, what I managed to salvage from Exlex has arrived from Madeira and is now in the workshop to be used on Exlex Minor.

Thanks to everyone who has donated making the expensive transport possible, including the airplane ticket for myself.

Picture below.

I am still trying to get plywood. I am hoping for next week when more people are back from their hollidays. In the meantime I am cutting out bulkheads and moulds for Exlex Minor and doing odd jobs.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

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Sailing report 1

Illustration Credit Pierre Hervé

After some initial problems with the electrical system Yrvind now making progress to south. Via his Inreach Tracker he can send short text messages and he report – the weather is fine, the boat with it´s special rigging works nice under down wind conditions with good course stability without any windvane. He also feels fine and are happy to be out on the ocean again. There are lot of fishing vessels around him right now, but he keep track of them with his AIS (Automatic Identification System).
More to be come when yrvind thinks it’s worth reporting something.

To be countinued…

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Roscoff

Yesterday we arrived at Roscoff in good time and found rooms and a parkinh place for the boat at an exelent hotel, Bellevue,  at rue Jean d Arc.

Tomorrow at 18.30 our ferry bound for Rosslare in the republic of Irland departs. Roscoff is a nice place and we enjoy our stay here. Pierre Herve and his wife Maelle visit us. Pierre has illustrated my Manifesto. He brought me two   spearguns. I could not by them in Sweden because they are criminal in Sweden.

A view of Exlex from our hotell window

Regards Yrvind and Beppe

 

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UPCOMING EVENT

So far everything has gone well, very well.

The rollover test was succesful, to my relief, allthuogh some water came in thrugh the back and for hatches and through a the VHF antenna. The antenna is now dealt with, hopefully.

Only a small amount of water, maybee 5 liter or 2 US gallons at the most, found its way inside the brave Exlex. The water was collected in the for and aft compartments. They are not sensitive to water. The boat was at lest 1 minute completly upside down before the healaing rope was released and she was allowed right herself, wich she did very quickly.  During coming capsizeses in the wild Roaring Forties I estimate that Exlex will stay upside down much shorter times. Myself, I was in the aft compartment. During the forst rollover I was in the bunk. There are sevaral videos of showing that experiment, for exampel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvdjEq3K93w

Monday 21 of May 2018 at 17:00 houers departure is planned from Mekonomen Västervik, Håkan will drive me to Ireland. I will be on place already at 16:00 houers for Q and A.

Adress Mekonomen, Allen, Västervik, Sweden

Everyone with a positive interest in small boat cruising are welcome.

Exlex is an experimental craft, she is very tender she is not very suitable for the planned voyage witch will be difficult by any standard. She was built as a daysailer and the reel boat was meant to be bigger but unfortunately I run out of money becouse no publisher wanted to print a manuscrips I had hoped would pay for a bigger boat, so brave Exlex willingly volentared to take on the big oceans. I have a model of next design with me. When the sky is grey and the wind contrary I will look at the model and get courage. Next design is 7.2 meters long 1.2 meters beam 0.2 meters draft. I am soon back from NZ to start working on her. This upcoming voyage is not a record attempt, nor is it a protest. It is an experiment being done to conferm my hypothesis of how a small, cheap, seaworthy, enviromentally frendly, low energy, shallow draft, cruising boat that can be propelled by wind with a small sail area and when the wind is absent by muscle power applied to an oar, even by elderly persons,  shall be designed.

Best regards Yrvind

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ROLLOVER TEST FULLY LOADED

On Friday 18 of May at 14:00 I intend to do a new rollover test to confirm the stability range of Exlex fully loaded.

In theory the boat should have even better stability fully loaded, but “show me”, to have experienced it will make me less worried.

To end up upside down would be cathastrophic.

All persons with a positive intrest in small boat cruising are welcome to watch.

Place: Västerviks båtvarv, Solbergsudde, Västervik.

A link to the first rollover test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOgULeFTfM

Regards Yrvind.