Posted on by Yrvind

PREPARATIONS AND PLANS

Hi friends

Today I uploaded a video on internet. It is self explanatory but a little clarification might not be out of place.

The praparations are now mostly done. Corona has caused a lit of disruption. I like to start my sail from a place with little marine traffic and close to open spaces. One such place and a beutiful one at that is Ålesund in Norway. At N 62° 28′ it is a high latitude place. The idea is to sail west round the Faeroe Islands and then south down to Saragosso Sea and spend time there until I run out of food in maybee November. Then to find a place to reprovision. Santa Maria in the Azores seams to be a good place. Few plans survive the first contact with the enemy but we will see.

I have a about 20 year old car that have not been running for over two years due to my bad economy. Our gouvernment have imposed a driving ban on her but I will try to start her tomorrow and try to get her past an inspection. Then I trail my boat to Ålesund. Frinds will drive car and trailer back to Västervik and when weather permits I be on my way hopefully within one month.

There is food and water in Exlex for about 120 days. I had hoped for more. Therefore my plan is to build a boat with better range when my economy so allows. In my spare time I scketch her. At present she is 7.2 meters long with a beam of 1.2 meters. Draft is 40 cm. She is a bigger wessel than I like on the positive side she has plenty of stovage and even a bunk for a small lady. There is also a flat space on deck 1.8 meter by 0.8.

She have a small 30X20 cm canard trimrudder that can be adjusted from inside.

She have a new type of ballasted centerboard 2.4 meter long that descends 20 cm to increase her stability a bit for windward sailing and help to prevent leeway.

It is of course a complication but life favors complication evolution is increadible complex. I might get away with it. Anywhay it is fun to experiment.

Thuse equipeded she can sail in 50 cm shallow water.

The centerboard in retracted position. She is 240 cm long 20 cm deep and lives among the stovage below my bed.
The ballasted centerboard in the down position. The Tufnol triangle is the lever that helps me to control her. The lever is controled from a slot in the deck with the help of a tackle and is immensly powerful. As with other centerboards when she hits something she automatically retracts.
The planned next Exlex is a Canoe Cruiser 7.2 meter long 1.2 meter beam 40 cm draft. She is rigged as a cat ketch. 4 square meter on the main mast and 2.5 on the mizzen. Empty 800 kilos 1300 ready for an extended ocean cruise. I know boats always comes out more heavy than the designer intends. Still it is an rough estimate, no calculations.

As always please help to support my research by donating on Pay Pal and Swish.

To those that already have donated. A great thanks it helps an old pensioner  a lot.

Regards Yrvind