Losing ones rudder is with, sinking, fire, and dismasting one of the major calamity’s that can happen to you out in the ocean. Many yachts have been abounded because of a broken rudder.
I have had rudder problems two times, first in 1962 and then in 1974. Luckily no harm was done either time.
The first time it was with Blekingsekan a not very seaworthy boat. I acquired her to be a shelter for me and my belongings. I only intended to move her along the coast in good weather.
I had left Halmstad in the morning and was sailing south into a strong breeze bound for Torekov on Bjärehalvön. It was about 20 miles distant. I had crossed Laholmsbukten. It had had a lee shore. The wind had been forward of the beam. I had had problems getting my boat to point high enough. Blekingsekan was not a very weatherly craft and progress had been slow.
It was late August with most of summer gone. The sun had set many hoers ago. Blekingsekan was not really intended for this kind of sailing but I had grown impatient with Halmstad and wanted to press on.
I had no navigation lights and no compass. I had a kerosene lamp but it was in the cabin and at the moment it was of no use to me, as I could not open its door. The door was blocked by the piece of plywood that I was sitting on.
I used the plywood to prevent the waves that were constantly breaking over the boat from swamping it. In that situation there was no way I could look at my small scale chart that covered a large part of the coast and was not detailed. I did not have a very clear idea of the lay of the port I was to enter. Darkness had come to soon or rather my progress had been much slower than I had anticipated due to a contrary wind change.
It was early in the morning and very dark before sunrise. I had been sailing for more than sixteen hoers, but finally I was so close that I could see the outline of the little fishing harbor. I headed in that direction and hit a rock.
In the turmoil, of the darkness and breaking waves the rudder got a knock and fell of its gudgeon’s. It did not float away as I had attached it with a string, made of hemp in those days before manmade fibers. I jumped in the water pushed my small, shallow draft, but now rudderless boat of the rock. It was a crucial moment.
But in a flash I had a solution.
My grandfather went to sea when he was 13 years old. He sailed the big square riggers for many years. Five years later he was back in Sweden. In his seabag there was a purse containing gold coins that paid for his navigation school where he got his Masters papers. I understood that he was very found of those years but never really spoke of them as he was a taciturn man. He had books of sailing ships and a scale model. During childhood I had looked at the model many a times. One thing that had struck me was that it had such a tiny rudder.
I once picked up courage and asked him about it.
“We steered with the sails. The rudder was only there for trimming.” He answered tersely, but it had been enough for me.
Now in that dark windy night I remembered his words.
I sheeted in the aft sail, and shore enough, now she headed up into the wind. By adjusting the sails of Blekingsekan, who was in fact a small schooner, I got her safely to the dock.
Next day in daylight and when the wind had eased it was no problem to hang the rudder on its fittings.
Many years later I found the book: The Way of a Ship (1953 Charles Scribner’s Sons) by Alan Villiers among the belongings that had been my late grandfathers. The book describes in deatail how a square rigger is handled. It is a very interesting book, well worth reading even if you are small boat sailor.
Modern times have seen the development of the windsurfer. Even that is a sail powered craft with no rudder. The sail and crew is moved to stear the craft. The steering of smallest and the biggest sailing craft are using a similar idea.
The secound time I lost stearing was less dramatic, even fun. The boat was my first Bris, the one I built in my mothers basement. I was approaching Martinique in the Carrabien coming up from Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. At that time I had sailed Bris many thousands of miles and knew her very well. She was a simple and uncomplicated boat without an engine or electricity.
She did not have a windvane selfsteering apparatus I made her selfsteer by balansing her sails and moving her center of gravity. Sheating in her mainsail made her sail closer to the wind. Walking forward on her deck made her sail closer to the wind. Mowing my weight to windward made her sail closer to the wind and so on.
I had an inside stearing wheel for adjusting the rudder. The wheel was connected to the rudder quadrant by wires.
Crossing the Douldrums there had been a lot of heavy squalls. It had frayed the wires. Now they were quite worn. As I was closing in on Martininique the wire broke. I went up on deck to steer her with my weight. By walking forward and aft, mowing to lee or to windward I had complete control.
Towards evening I reached bay of Fort du France. The anchorage was filled with boats but with ease I tacked between the closely anchored yachts and found myself a nice spot in relatively shallow water. There at leisure I dropped my anchor.
A few days later when I had settled down after the about the about 3800 miles long sail I changed the wire for a spare one I had carried for years.
An intenet search for “lost rudder” gets plenty of responses. The problem is well known and frequent despite the danger it puts yachts into.
The present Exlex is a three masted shooner. Her sail area is well spread out fore and aft. When I sheet in the aft sail she will sail closer to the wind.
The first and secound masts are all the way up in the bow. They are freestanding. That allows the sails to be let out more than 90°. If I sail wing on wing, having the two forward sails out one on each side and sheated out more than 90° it will create a very stable downwind configuration.
Exlex lateral area will also help, as instead of fixed keel, there is a daggerboard that can be raised thus giving her lee helm when desired. I can thuse be give Exlex weather helm or lee helm as desired.
Exlex have a spoonbow that does not grip the water running downwind. It reduces her tendency to broach too.
In conclusion. In the unlikely event of Exlex losing her overbuilt rudder I have some ideas to help me to figure out a way to steer her. A broken rudder will be inconvinient but hopefully no catastrophe.
Every yacht is a compromise, but to different degrees, the fewer compromises you have to make the better boat you get. Therefore it is important to have its intended use clear in mind. If not, the boat may end up like the famous Swiss Army knife, with screw-drivers, cork-screws, tweezers, awls, pens, rulers, nail-filers and countersinkers. A product that can do many things passable, but that cannot do anything well. If I have a good functional knife I do not add a cork-screw to it because I know I get an inferior knife.
In the same I do not approve of adding watermakers, fridges, gensets, and other conveniences to my boats because that will convert her to a nearly useless Swiss Army knife. I prefer to get a smaller purposeful boat and go cruising now instead of staying stuck in marinas spending my time and money servicing its machinery.
For about 60 years I have been in the searching of the good boat. 1962 was the first time I left Sweden on my own keel. I was 23 years old, contrary and stubborn, set in my ways. I had immense self-confidence. I was misfit in society, but well fitted for the cruising life. Already I had experienced more than most grown men. I understood that there must be more to life than doing routine work. I realized that hidden beyond the bourgeois rules and regulations existed a fantastic world and wanted to discover it and be part of it, but I had very little money.
My first cruiser. The year is 1962 and I am 23 years old. I never looked back. The boat is 15 feet
The solution was a small boat. I am sure that today there are thousands of men, young and old, and women of all ages and many others that feel the same, that also wants to explore their inner and outer worlds in a simple sustainable seaworthy boat. If you are one of them read on. This is for you.
Unfortunately, sailing magazines, more often than not, place photos of big shiny yachts on their cover pages. They try to make you believe that a yacht needs to be big, to have a deep ballast keel, and a powerful diesel engine in order to be seaworthy and stand up to the stormy seas of the oceans. That’s all wrong. Stormy seas are kind to small boats; they yield to the breakers.
To be attractive, according to the established doctrine a yacht must be confortable. That is also wrong. Comfort breed’s boredom and it makes you lazy and fat. Consequently it does not fulfill its purpose. It is just a pain that cost money and takes up your time.
My boat, back then in 1962 was 15 feet long or 4.5 meter. Its intended use was a safe shelter for my few belongings and myself, a place where I could read and reflect on the mysterious world I was living in.
In calm weather I should be able to mow her safely from place to place along the coast. In those early days harbor dues were no problems as there were so few boats about that it was not profitable to collect them.
Encouraged by how well the idea worked my ambitions grow. Continents beyond oceans tempted me. This was the time before cheap air travel. A simple boat was the solution I realized. It had however to be more seaworthy. It must to be able to handle furious storms. At the same time should not be big and complicated. It had to be cheap.
It is not more work to build a good boat than a bad one, but you have to know what you are doing.
A wise friend of mine from the time I served a prison sentence, a dangerous murderer in the cell next to me, had advised me as our ways parted.
Yrvind, he said.
Never do what I have done. Instead if you have a problem, go to the library. Books will guide you.
If you like to build a radio receiver, there is a book about that.
If you like to learn French, there is a book about that.
If you want to know how life after death is lived, there is a book about that.
And, he added: It is the smartest men that ever have existed that have written those books.
That was potent advice. Now that I wanted to cross oceans, surely there must be a book about that. I was not mistaken. In libraries I found shelves after shelves of nautical books. For many years I studied, not only boatbuilding and navigation but also mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, fluid mechanics, physiology, nutrition and much more. In fact there was no end to all the knowledge that there was. I read and read and I got wiser and wiser. At the same time I experimented with different small crafts.
Finally in 1967 I had a good boat. I named her Anna. She was a 4.25-meter (13 feet) long rowing boat that I had decked and converted into a small cruiser.
Anna 1967 68. Anna was 4.25 meter long 13 feet.
The summer of 1967 I cruised the Swedish west coast and the Danish Limfjord in North Jutland.
For a change I now also had a bit of money. I had got a job as a pedagogue working with a team of psychiatrics, psychologists and social workers to teach mathematics to children with problems. Despite the fact that I was an ex-convict and a certified psychopath I had gotten the job. The mathematics I had thought myself and my calm personality had convinced the staff of the institution that I was the man best qualified for the job. But now in 1968 I planned to sail around the world in my little 13 foot boat.
It was early May. A cold northerly wind was blowing, but I had convinced Martine, a French girl I had met at the library, she was on her way to see North Cape, that she make a detour and make me company to Kiel in Germany. After Holland and Belgium I ended up in Cowes, Isle of Wight.
Cowes is England’s sailing Mecca. There I made a beeline to the local library and found a treasury. There were shelves filled with books on yachting. A paradise.
After a while I found friends among the local yachtsmen and a place for my boat at the Folly Inn up the Medina river. The locals were amazed that I had come all the way from Sweden in my little boat. I let them believe that I was a clever man. I did not tell them that it was not more difficult to sail a mile in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland than in England because they treated me well and I wanted them to continue to do just that.
Henry Ford used to say: Everything is possible; just divide the task into small enough pieces.
It had become September. Summer was mostly gone and so had most of my money. I lived mostly on blackberries. Those I found on a disused railroad track. No one but me was attracted to the ripe sweat berries. In perfect silence, in contemplative mood, in bliss I spent hours by myself in the prickly shrubs. The weather was nice to.
My next leg on the way to the continents beyond the ocean was the mighty Atlantic. In doubt I hesitated. Was my small boat really up to it? Was I a better judge of the mighty sea than all the grown ups that warned me. I had been in over 50 harbors. I had spoken to hundreds of yachtsmen, all more experienced than me.
You must have a bigger boat, they all had advised.
A bigger boat is much safer, it is faster. Besides that it will also attract more beautiful women. In short a bigger boat would make me more happy. They all agreed about that.
The one that takes guidance is wise, while the foolish think his own way is the best.
With some doubt, because I was very content with little Anna who over the years had been so loyal, had given me so little trouble.
I sold Anna in Cowes to a lighthouse keeper. I visited Martine in Paris; she was back from North Cape. Then purposeful I went back to Sweden.
My intention was, like Slocum, to find an old wreck and convert her into a cruiser.
To get money I sold most of my cameras and lenses. I found and the hull of an old steam launch built of riveted iron plates in 1885. She had had an eventful life. During the war she had caught fire and sunk up in Munksjön Jönköping.
The hull of an 1885 steamboat. I bought her in November 1968 She was 12 meter long 40 feet. The previus owner gave me this photo from the summer.The deck and deckhouses were welded on. We did all the fittings ourselfes from bits we found in a scrapyard. We did add an engine. Saving time space and money that was in short supplyAfter working hard a winter with a friend I departed Sweden August 1969Duga was a good boat and sailed well. Here she is in Rio Brasil after a long passage from Canary Islands. But small boats makes me more happy. Small boats makes my heart melt. They are so brave when they face the big waves and so kind and loyal to their crew.
A truck driver bought the wreck. He had found her on the shore with a tree growing through her hull plate. He had transported her to Göteborg. His intention was to convert her to a motor yacht. Considering all she had been through she was mostly in good condition. Iron rusts less than steel. But there were many things to fix before the conversion could start. Now it was November and he had not even started. It had been raining after that northerly winds had brought cold weather. The water that had collected in her bilges had frozen. He was discouraged.
I had been touring the boatyards for some time. I had seen her before, but 40 feet long she was much too big for me. Then one Sunday there was a man in her, covering her for the winter.
Nice shape I said as an introduction.
You can have her for 2000 kroner (about 200 Euro or Dollar) he said. It was the biggest wreck I had set my eyes on, but it was also by far the cheapest, for good reasons. She needed a lots and lots of work. But I had done a bit of welding before and I know were the scrapyards were. In my mind, nicely painted the rusty wreck grow into a beautiful schooner that sailed the trade winds in the South Seas with me as a Captain and a beautiful girl crew. I had the money from the sold cameras in my pocket and gave it to Johnny. He took them, but then suddenly he changed his mind, but it was to late, she was already mine.
Of course 40 feet Duga, as I named her, was immense. This is 50 years ago and boats those days were much smaller. With the help of a friend I worked hard the whole winter and spring. As time passed she kind of shrunk in size.
In August, after eight months of intense work, we launched her. We were anxious to get away from Sweden before winter so in a northerly gale we departed Göteborg and headed for Kiel Germany. We docked after 30 hoers.
My advisers had been right. A big boat is faster than a small and Duga was very fast. Anna had used a month to get Martine and me to the same destination.
On the other hand, with Anna we had had a wonderful time in Denmark. Duga showed us nothing of Denmark. After having crossed the Bay of Biscay in October I found myself in Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
I scraped and varnished these high mast in Las Palmas. The boat was 72 feet long.After working on this giant boat for a few weeks I felt her size fitted me fine. To have something smaller was a bit shameful, but I was getting paid. I was not paying and her troubles was not my trouble. The lesson I learnt. Adapt. Get a small boat. Be happy and have no problems.
One day a big Camper and Nicholson Ketch dropped her anchor next to Duga. She flew a Norwegian flag. It was father and son, his wife and baby. They were on their way to the Caribbean. They had been there before in a Colin Archer doing charter. From one of their wealthy American customers they had borrowed money and bought the boat in Italy.
They know the trade and wanted the boat to be shiny. My friend and I were asked to do the masts. First they had to be scraped, then varnished seven times, a big job that would take plenty of time. As a bonus we where invited to have all our meals onboard. After a few weeks on board the huge ketch, from morning to evening, I found her size to be just right. In the evening after the days work was done it felt embarrassing and unfair that we had to row back to the much smaller Duga.
In not much more than a year my appetite had grown from a 13 foot boat to a 72 feet one. It was a very sobering lesson.
Those that adapt survive. This is true for all living things. Coming from the sunshine into a cave you are blind, but after a few minutes your eyes have adapted and you can orient yourself.
Three years ago I started to eat once a day. My body thought I was crazy. It protested. After a year she had adapted. Now she never gets hungry except just before lunch every day, the regular eating time. It saves me time and money and keeps me more healthy and fit. And my body thanks me and tells me that it is the best thing I have done.
Epicurus pointed out that the expense of an extravagant lifestyle outweighs the pleasure of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completely avoided. Wise men of all times have favored the simple life unfortunately economists do not agree.
That said the size of a cruiser depends on its intended use. Day sailing and circumnavigation calls for different sizes and size is best measured in displacement. An Olympic single scull is 8.2 meter long. It weighs 14 kilos. An Allegro, a Swedish cruiser is 8.03 meter long. It weighs 3400 kilos.
My friend jumped ship in Las Palmas. With a girl crew I sailed Duga to Rio in Brazil. Did 40 feet bring more happiness than 13 feet? No, but 13 feet Anna would have had problems carrying food and provisions for a long ocean crossing.
I sold Duga and in 1971 I was back in Sweden. A bigger boat had not made me more happy.
Adapting from a big boat to a smaller was a smart thing to do I realized. Small boats, small problems. Big boats, big problems.
I started to build Bris as I named her in my mother’s basement. The drawing of my self designed boat showed a 20 feet light displacement cruiser. I think her empty displacement must have been something like 800 kilos. It was a happy boat and I made many ocean crossings in her with and without a girl crew. Last time was in 1983 when I delivered her from Göteborg Sweden to Museum of Yachting in Newport R.I.
The present Exlex is 5.8 meter (19 feet) but her beam is only 1.22 meter compared to 1.72 meter for Bris and weighs 600 kilos empty. Exlex is those much smaller than Bris. Where I will sail Exlex depends on Corona. The next few months will tell.
The present Exlex 19 feet 5.8 meter beam 1.2 meter sailing outside Hunnebostrand. The massivly experienced Captain Grahn in the fore hatch helps with navigation and advise in his homewaters. Each of the balanced lugsails has an area of 2 square meter.
I am already thinking of my next boat. Her design gets better every day. At present she is, 7.8 meter long (25 -26 feet) with a beam of 1.3 meter. Six beams long, no measurement rule. I think she will come out with an empty displacement of about 800 depending of how heavy I build her. I like to have a boat that I can spend longer spend up to a whole year at sea without resupply, hopefully with a nice girl crew.
Why do people want boats bigger than that? Conspicuous consumption maybe? One thing is sure; the boating industry combined with yachting magazines does its best to sell us boats more expensive than we can afford. Also most, but luckily not all women go for the guy with a bigger boat.
My advice for what it is worth is. Adapt to the smallest and simplest boat that will meet the needs of its intended use. The cost of a smaller boat is a fraction of the big one. Its upkeep is a fraction of the big one and sustainability is many times greater.
Most people, but sadly not all care about our planet, they just need to be educated. Please educate yourself so that you can become one of the good ones.
Why do I like to spend so long time at sea? Of all the animals in the world only humans are bored. A bird on a twig is happy, not even the snail that travels so enormously slowly is bored.
Also you can find inner peace but it takes time to find the calm. A week at sea is usually needed just for the body to adept, a month for the soul. After that time stops to exist and you are in bliss. It is a bit like when you were very young you literally “lived in time”. You had no awareness of its passing. It is a pleasing experience. You cannot be bored.
The old man complains you say. Yes it was better before, or it might be worse now. The fact is our world has grown less and less safe.
Younger persons do not realize this because they nothing to compare with. They have not experienced that world that existed before they were born. They have grown up with cellphones and TV.
Already Thoreau in the 1850 complained of modernity.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 1750 pleaded back to nature.
Some philosophers maintains that the agriculture revolution that happend 10,000 years ago when there was maybe only one million inhabitants on earth was humanity’s worst catastrophe.
When I was a child the world population was about 2 billion now it is close to 8 billion. Our finite world now have to feed four times as many inhabitants, inhabitants that per capita now consumes many times as much as the persons that lived the old kind of life. Clearly the food is less ecological and nutritious. This has been said many times before, but we have not acted on it therefore I again bore you with the facts. I think that they need to be repeatedd once more.
When I started to cruise there were no marinas and no harbor dues. When I arrived and I just dropped my anchor.
With increasing population and communication crime have increased at an alarming rate. Big populations favors crime. Nowadays many places are not safe.
1845 Henry Thoreau borrowed an ax and walked down to Walden pound. There he cut down some trees and built himself a 10X15 feet cabin. In the cabin he lived a simple life for a year or two.
A hundred years later, 1944 Harlan Hubbard and his wife could still build a shantyboat in the old fashioned way. Thiers had a 10X15 feet cabin, same size as Thoreaus. They built it on the shore of the Ohio River. When it was completed they slowly drifted down the river. In the summers they tied up some nice place on the riverbank and grove a garden. They lived a simple life. Eating mostly what they themselves produced. This was repeated each year for seven years until 1951 when they reached the New Orleans delta.
Today, in most places, this is neither permitted nor safe. There is however one exception. It is the mighty oceans. They cover 71% of the earth’s surface. There is no law that will prevent you to drift far out into the immense ocean in a small craft and live there in peace. You can stay there until you run out of food.
The Sargasso Sea is one such place. If you sail there in a small boat it is a wonderful place, because a small boat if rightly conceived will neither roll, nor will it flap its sails. It’s all peace.
It’s the only ocean in the world without shores, its bounded on the west by the Gulf Stream, on the north by the North Atlantic Current, on the east by the Canary Current, and on the south by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. It has an area that is more than 12 times as large as Sweden and Sweden with an area of 410 000 square kilometer is a large country. The Sargasso Sea has no known human inhabitants. Sweden has 10 million inhabitants and is sparsely inhabited.
The Sargasso Sea water has a distinctive deep blue color and an exceptional clarity. Its underwater visibility is up to 60 m (200 feet). The average depth is 5000 meter and that suits me fine. It is situated below the Acores high pressure system so there is nearly always good weather, except for the occasional hurricane, but that’s nothing that’s worries my sturdy small boats.
The swimming season in Sargasso Sea lasts from January to December, twelve months per year! During those months, Sargasso Sea water temperature does not drop below 68°F/20°C and therefore suitable for comfortable swimming. The average water temperature in Sargasso Sea in winter reaches 72°F/22°C, in spring 72°F/22°C, in summer the average temperature rises to 81°F/27°C, and in autumn it is 81°F/27°C.
I have 10,000 books and the complete Wikipedia in 6 languages stored on my tablets. Fact-finding will be no problem. Solar panels will supply all the needed electricity pollution free and noiseless.
The Sargasso Sea is a good place to hide in in these times of troubles, Corona and other.
In August 1665 Isaac Newton avoided the Great Plague by moving to his mother. Cambridge University was temporarily closed. One day as he, in a contemplative mood, sat in her garden, he heard an apple fall to the ground. He asked himself. “Do the apple and the moon obey the same laws?” That was how he started to figure out the law of gravitation.
Drifting in the Sargasso Sea the risk of me being hit in the head by a falling apple is pretty slim. Still out there, there might be other phenomena that will inspire me to come up with worthwhile ideas that I can incooperate into my next boat as part of my pursuit of simple, sustainable living.
Also. I am an independent reshercher. Not supported by governments or other institutions. Do you like my results. Please support me. On Wendsday 22 April I have my 81 birthday.
I now spend much time watching the internet to be updated on Corona.
I saw a video from Italy on an intensive care unit. The Doctor told the reporter: As you can see most of the patients hera are obese.
I have always been on the fat side but I am controling it by eating only once a day. I really love to eat, icecream, cakes and other sweet thing. In preparation for my long sail I had the tempting idea to eat not only healthy food. Of course it was not realy rational. It was like an alchoholist always finding a rationale for a drink. Anywhay when test sailing my boat in Hunnebostrand quite a few persons invited me to a resturang. I chose icecream over healthy food.
Me eating a large icecream i Hunnebostrand
My weight is now 78 instead of my maximum BMI 72. I realised that I have to get more healthy. To do something about it I now run every day for one and a half houer and after that do exercises for 30 minutes. The idea is to get bigger lungs and get back to a healthy BMI, to get very fit.
What is worse our gouvernment do not think it is important with face masks and social distance. Our neighbors Finland, Denmark and Norway do as do most other contries. The Corona will be very happy about that.
Even worse. We do not have enough equipment to handle the sick. Therefore instead of getting better hospotals The Council for Hospital Ethics have come up with new guidelines and regulations: Older persons should be unplugged to give place for younger. It certainly is an easy way out, but it scares me.
From an intervieuw on Swedish National TV
I am 80 and most persons are younger. I ask my readers to help me. If you see a Doctor trying to unplugg me from a lifesaving machine. I plead to you all, talk them out of it. Tell the Doctors that Yrvind is good for an other 80 years. If not, you can be sure, there will be no more posts on this site.
I sincerley hope nothing bad happens to me, I keep myself isolated. If Norway opens up I leave from Ålesund, If not I start from Bohuslän the Swedish west coat. It is not good sailingwise but the only left option. I have AIS also now thanks to Bövik Marine 2 strobelight of good quality.
It is visible 3 nautical miles and and works 48 hoers on 4 AA alkaline batteries. I am testing it. It have now been flashing for 72 houers and keeps flashing. Very good.
My distination still depends on Corona, but the general idea is to sail south, west of Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, crossing the equator, keep sailing south until I reach high latitude. When I run out of food after 5000 – 10000 miles I try to find a small port and restock. There I will reorient myself with respect to Corona and make a new decision.
On the latest post I write about the idea of starting fråm Ålesund Norway becouse the Corona gave problems trailing Exlex to Ireland, many contries have blocked their borders.
Now also the Norwigian border is closed.
I also got a phone call from Madeira telling me that all their marinas are closed and it seams that many ports worldwide now are closing. It is to early to make decisions. But it seams that I will have problems to be able to round Cape of Good Hope before December. It is important to sail the Indian Ocean in the summer.
What to do?
I am not shore. I do not feel safe to cross the North Sea single handed even with AIS, but maybe if I get desperate I will do it anyway. I did it singlehaded 1973 and 1976 without AIS but it was tiring to keep awake.
I am about to pack food but if the situation do not improve very quickly I might be forced to do the voyage to NZ with more stops, that will take two years. An other solution would be to figure out a very different, long, interesting, non stop route that takes me into stormy weather. I now have all the food and I really like to start this summer, but of course such an voyage would be meaningless if it did not test Exlex in difficult conditions. I have some ideas, but they must come to maturity. This new type of simple sustainable boat ideas needs more testing before I start building Next Design, now 7,8 X 1,3 meter, six beams long.
Corona is a world wide problem. Besides medical problems there will be economical problems affecting many more than me.
I have heard that 20 % of those like me over 80 years will die even if they get good hospital treatment. I am over 80. I do run once a week and do 20 min exercise evry day. Now from tomorrow I will run twice a week hoping that it increase my chance of survival to 12 %. They say that 70 – 80 % of the population will get infected.
Untill the situation becomes clearer I will work on the next design a boat in wich two persons can spend a long time at sea.
The plan was to trail Exlex to Ireland in May and from Dingle sail her to Madeira. Due to Corona I now plan to sail out from Ålesund Norway in the beginning of June. The distance to Madeira is more than twice as long and in tougher and colder conditions. I see this as the best alternative even though this later will press me time as it is important that I round the Cape of Good Hope not later than 1st of December when the summer down there begins. Below is the planned track Ålesund – Madeira drawn with a lead pencel by me on the British Routing chart for June. First I will sail west to not have much of the Gulf Stream against me. I will also try to keep well west of Scotland, Ireland and the Bay of Biscay before going east to catch the northely winds outside Portugal.
Click once or twice to enlarge.
Below frequency of gales for the same month.
The time at sea will be much more demanding, on the other hand time on the road behind the car will be a piece of cake compared to the trail to Ireland, no ferries and a distance of only 1000 kilometers and a stunning Norwegian fjord landscape. Deep water is just outside Ålesund, I like that.
Unfortunately the Boat Show in Stockholm has been stopped. It was meant that I should have given 3 talks in Stockholm about the ideas and development of Exlex. I hope to write something about here here instead.
Yesterday the Mullion insulated flotation suit arrived from Bövik marin. In September 2007 when I and 19 year old Captain Grahn crossed the North Sea from Norway to Scotland in an old Albin Vega we where cought in a equinoxial storm. We had no heating it was could and our ship Maja leaked from abouve. It was the Chinese water torture. Fortunatley Bövik Marin had supplied us with the Mullion insulated flotation suit. That saved the trip. Do you also want to have comfortable voyages across stormy seas? Contact Bövik Marin and they can supply you with the comfortable Mullion insulated flotation suit. Old leaky Vegas are cheap. For example today there is one on Blocket for 10 000 kronor and you are all set to escape the Corona virus in comfort.
Below me in the Mullion insulated flotation suit close to my beloved Exlex the pride of all the oceans.
It comes in a handy bag.
Besides reciving fantastic gifts and donations now and then for which I am grateful, I am working with the sails. I have healed Exlex about 45°. That enables me to step the mast and rise the sailes. That way I will be able to trim lazyjacks and and sheets.
The week after next I plan to travel to Stockholm and give talks at the boat show. Coming back about 15 of Mars it time to start making food for 250 days and fill Exlex whit it, well stowed.
I like to thank the following for help with the video
Fredrik Aurell
Andreas Eisdhagen
Pierre Hervé
Part one the rollover test.
Petter with the help of a boat hook is confirming that Exlex rightning moment is positiv at all angels up to 180 degrees.
I am inside Exlex during the rollover test. The idea was that it was going to be a controlled rollover. However, Exlex is exceptionally unstabel upside down, dispite lack of ballast keel, but due to plenty of boyancy in her topsides so she just flipped over, and a good thing that is. I was not prepared and using one hand to hold my expensive phone I did not like to drop it so it was not easy get hold of something to hold on to, but on a small boat a rollover is a small problem. Now the are safety belts in the two cabins. I am in good shape and did not get hurt.
The secound part of the video show her sailing in Hunnebostrand. She is very stabel and easyly driven. The two sails each has an area of 2 square meter about the same as an Optimist dingy. Exlex is loaded with 70 kilos of water 4 anchors and some chain maybee 40 – 50 kilo and 4 40 amps batteries also my friend Thomas Grahn guessing 80 kilos. Thomas Grahn 2 anchors will stay ashore. 130 liter water more and about 150 kilo food will be added and maybe 50 – 100 kilo other things including one more mast and 2 square meter more sail area. During the passage from Dingle Ireland to Madeira I will only be carrying 70 liters of water. It will test the boats speed and behavior. In Madeira I will load her for 200 days and 13400 miles to Dunedin NZ. She will at the beginning be overloaded but the first part of the voyage is in the relativly light trade winds of the eastern part of the North Atlantic. Already when reaching the equator and the South East trades she will be lighter and when passing south of Africa she have lost half of her load and hopefully me and her, we have found our peak performance.
I am trying to get order in the boat in such a way that things do not interfere with each other. It can be taxing.
Here is how some things are stored.
The waterproof camera Olympus though
The clock that informs me how fast time is passing and how short life is and how I should take care of every minuteThe magnifying glass that helps my eyes to see the small details in the pilotcharts and to get splinters out of my fingersThe erasing shield and the triangle that will help me to draw the next boatThe one hand compass that helps me to measure distances and plot positions on the pilot charts. I do use ipad for navigation but hav not found pilot charts for itKnifes and spoons and toothbrushes well secured with tufnol that is locked with phosphor bronze springs.Port side of the sleeping room with compas erasing shield the lines to the rudder and the jammers and the volt meter.Starbord side with magnifying glass handles thermometer, barometer clock.dinging room starboard side with knifes and spoons and on topp the wedges for the half moon shaped door that rotates on a horizontal axisDining room port side with pump camera frontal lamp and bowl or scope with a round handle so that I can suspend it gimbaled.The bowl or scoop that is going to be used for musli. Its now in the gimbaled position.The holder for the scoop now glued and screwed under the seat. Tughnol carbon fiber on a piece of plywood
I also made a small hook to pick up things and mesure the boats speed through the water at the top and bottom of waves. This is for my theory of wave dynamics.
The eagle eyed observer, no doubt have noticed that Exlex is unpainted inside. The reason I soon be in NZ and start to build a new boat, therefore I focus on utility and function. I am eager to get sailing.
A small hook, handy for many a thing.
A video. Make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel
80 years ago I lived on the windward side of a small island close to the North Sea. It was me, my mother, her mother and my grandmothers mother, my father a seaman had left us 15 of January 1940. In 1941 the English sunk his ship in Hong Kong. Good for the war they said. I never saw him again.
Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in April 1940. I was a one year old idealist and Sweden prepared for war. Our island and the waters around it were declared restricted military area. Only residents were permitted access. I saw few people during my childhood. Our house was situated within a stones throw from the sea on an insulated peninsula, far from the village. I played in the water and learned to handle small boats. I did not need toys. Eventually peace came and I was old enough for school. Being curious I had looked forward to be taught the wisdom of the grown ups but I was bitterly disappointed. School meant route learning. We had to learn by heart the names of rivers and towns. I was unable to do that. During the forties the official policy was harsh discipline. Teachers were encouraged to beat lazy children who did not do their homework. During the breaks my mates did their best to assist my teacher. I got beaten badly sometimes walking home with blood on my face. Despite the beating my homework did not improve. I was stubborn man. Born a stoic, raised by women I did not cry. I am sure though that had I been less proud and rebellious I would have been beaten less. After four years of that inhuman hell it was found out that I was dyslexic. My kind and loving mother was able to send me to a very nice and understanding boarding school with reform pedagogic. That was a real paradise.
60 years ago, an early February morning 1960, the doors of a maximum security prison opened and I was let out into a dark, cold street. What had I, a gentle, honest, curious, industrious, righteousness, young man done to be an inmate of an institution with such a bad reputation?
Not much, just being stubborn, more stubborn than ordinary persons. I had been conscripted, but within hours in the army, for no reason at all, my sergeant had taken a strong dislike to me. My early schooldays had thought not to give into grown ups that humiliated and treated me unfair. I resisted. Things escalated. I did not give in. Eventually the punishments increased until I was sent to prison. As I was clearly innocent, I had just been bullied; I saw no reason to repent. That infuriated the jailers. It gave the other prisoners something to laugh at. I was accused of stirring up a mutiny. Now it was the establishment against me. They decided to break me. I was transported me to a maximum security prison. There I immediately was put into solitary confinement and ordered to do stupid work. I refused. I was told that for every day I did not work an extra day would be added to the length of my punishment. I did not let that influence me. To me it was not hell sitting in a heated room. I was feed three times. I used the precious time to reflect on the wonders of life. Finally they sort of gave up on me. One day it knocked on the door. That was odd, as the jailers did no knocking. I nice woman a psychiatrist came in. She had a paper in her hand. She told me, a bit embarrassed, that I was causing a lot of problems but if I signed the paper that stated that I was a psychopath they would let me out and give me 25 dollar to start a new life. If not they would keep me forever. Of course I am not more of a psychopath than you, but I am probably more stubborn.
They kept their part of the deal, but I soon realized that the testimonial was useless and as things stood a bourgeois career was not for me. Instead I bought a rotten old boat and become Captain of my own ship. I soon realized that a new type of small cruising was desirable. I decided I was the to be the man to fix that. That was 60 years ago.
40 years ago 1980, still stubborn after many attempts of improving the state of small ocean going cruising boats I singlehandedly rounded Cape Horn. I was the first swede to do so Cape Horn. I did it east to west against the prevailing winds and currents. My boat was just 19 feet. No smaller boat had rounded the Horn before. It was 16 of June 1980. It was winter. It was cold and very dark. It was the time before GPS. My navigation was done solely by sextant and dead reckoning. The storms and the cold were difficult, but by far the most difficult part was the navigation. Astro navigation is only possible if you can see the celest objects. Because the frequently bad weather it was often so that many days passed without the possibility to get an observation. The days were short and the sun was seldom visible. At noon, in June, south of Cape Horn, the suns altitude is not higher than 11°, same as here in south Sweden today New Years Day. A GPS is a thousand times more accurate than a sextant at any time and it gives you your position instantly in any weather in at any time of the year. It was a hard but satisfying forty day offshore passage. It had showed me the passage with the most fearsome reputation and I had done it under the worst of circumstances. I was awarded the Royal Cruising Clubs Medal of Seamanship. The same medal had been given to Chichester, Knox-Johnston and Moitessier. That was 40 years ago.
20 years ago my rounding of Cape Horn had in the eyes of the public magically transformed me from a deplorable psychopath into an established and admired hero. I had written a book and become a sought after public speaker I had married a wonderful girl we had bought a piece of land and built a house on it and I was still experimenting with small boats still trying to improve small ocean going cruisers. The future looked bright and settled. Then just as I held the golden apple in my hand, a surprise came. Right under our house was the world’s largest stockpile of oil, 2,7 million cubic meters. It had been built in secret during the cold war. The idea was to fuel the coming war against the Soviet Union. 20 years ago the Soviet Union had been dissolved and our government did not know what to do with 2,7 million cubic meter of oil so they sold it to an oil company for the neat sum of one hundred dollars. The oil company was happy and decided to commercially exploit the stockpile. Unfortunately that meant that they had to build a plant right where our house was. Might is right. Employment wins over environment. The company started to build. Permission they would get later. They were creating hundreds of jobs. Good for the community.
My response was to get four TV-teams the national newspapers etc to my workshop. There I told them that there would be action at the refinery. We acted fast. With friends I let off 150 smoke bombs plus super big firecrackers in a protest. Panic aroused. In the confusion the refinery’s security personal called in the police to assist them to take care of the terrorists, but as the smoke began to clear they realized it was just me, the crazy trouble maker. The directors know that they had no permission for what they were doing, that they were doing something illegal. They definitely did not want the police involved. With the help of newly invented cell phone they got hold of the speeding police, told them that the alarm was a mistake, that everything was OK, that they would deal with it themselves. They asked the police to turn back and forget everything.
I was able to stop the project but to a price. A big oil company has much influence in a small community I was harassed I lost my wife and our house and mowed to the other side of Sweden. That was 20 years ago.
Now we have the year 2020. I am 80 years old. I am still stubborn and still experimenting with small boats. In April, in just a few months, I have to hurry; a friend will trail my new boat Exlex to Dingle in Ireland. Exlex is 5.8 meters long 1.2 meters beam with a draft of 20 cm and an empty displacement of 0.6 tons.
By the way, Exlex is Latin for outlaw. Ex means out, Lex means law. It’s the European Union Recreational Craft Directive that has criminalized her. They do not want small boats; there is more money in bigger ones. That they cause more pollution and give less happiness to their crews is the price we pay for growth and more GNP.
My plan is to test sail her the 1200 miles to Porto Santo Madeira. If I can keep an average speed of 3 knots it will take 17 days. Year 2018, with a boat 4 cm shorter, that same passage took me 40 days. I do not always get everything right. Is this new improved boat that much faster? Time will tell. Based on this trial I will in Porto Santo provision Exlex for a much longer passage. The ultimate destination is Dunedin NZ about 13400 miles and 186 days distant. I intend to sail south of Africa, Australia and NZ. Will I make it? I do not now. A less stubborn person will definitely not make it. The boat is on the small side for such an long passage. Will I be able to carry enough food and on my small boat? Hopefully, because I have trained myself, for two years, to eat only once a day. And water? On previous voyages I have drunk one liter water a day so I will carry 200 liters. Watermakers are too expensive and too unreliable even if I carried several. The original idea was to make a landfall in Western Australia. For that I needed a visa. However I got angry when I was advised sort it out with phone calls to Australia. I like to spend the little money I have on food not on long distance calls. The visa problem is stupid. They have an embassy here in Sweden and they must surely have computers and e-mail in Australia – why do they make things difficult for me?
In 2040 I be 100 years old. I have never smoked, not even one cigarette. I have never drunk not even one bear. I use my body and I use my brain that favors my sustainability. Hopefully people will get the idea that simple habits, small boats favors our worlds sustainability and everyone’s happiness. Big boats – big problems. Small boats – small problems.
