Uncategorized Archives - Page 3 of 4

Stubling across a well of solid ideas and small valuable fixes

On 13/01/2014 Filed under Uncategorized

There are countless number of sailing blogs – just like this one – and the contents vary. This evening I stumbled across what I consider a very useful one.

The very able Armin Horn writes that he was smitten by the sailing bug a few years ago and is now enjoying his Bavaria sailing yacht Jalin. Among other things Armin is a professor and electrotechnical engineer – and I would add inventor. The blog is covered with major and minor improvements and inventions to common problems and issue. Really worth a read if you either are forced or just plainly enjoy tinkering with your vessel – like both Armin and myself.

The blog is in German, but google translates it if that is an issue. So go ahead and enjoy

http://www.sailnsea.com/index_boat.html

Some of the inventions are also for sale in a web shop.

Anchor rider sail – a world of difference

On 08/01/2014 04/02/2016 Filed under Uncategorized

The 2012 summer was the first season with Iris. Anchoring was all but pleasant as she swung like a carousel. Maybe one of the disadvantages of the swing keel she sport. So quite a few nights were spend moored to shore. She draws only 1.1m of water – of the many advantages of the swing keel 😉 – so we get close to shore.

Preparing for the 2013 summer I did a bit of research on how to stabilise the vessel at anchor. We ended up with a delta wing rider sail. It made the world of difference and swinging is now highly limited – leading to most nights being spent at anchor – sleeping.

Iris is 43ft, wights 16MT loaded. The sail maker recommended a size 4, but we ended with size 3, which works nicely. I think the sail is surprisingly large and draws a lots of wind. Hence it is important to secure it well and very tight.

Fell free to check the friendly sail maker http://www.lundhsails.se/produkter/ankarplog

I prefer to anchor with large cope; preferably minimum 5:1. That may be a bit more than most sailors. Iris was the first vessel into this lovely anchorage along the south coast of Norway. In the evening we wanted to head over to Denmark and when retrieving the anchor if found that the vessel in the middle had dropped their anchor over my anchor chain. Not ideal! With a lot of luck we managed to glide passed the middle vessel and get our hook up without any damage.

Limited space – too much gear – great dish strainer

On 29/04/2012 Filed under Uncategorized

Solving the ever returning issue of wanting to add gear on board while fighting limited space. Do you recognise the situation?

The other day while at IKEA, I came across a little gem of a dish strainer. Is this something to write about then? Maybe. The inspiration to write comes from a post at another blog – morganscloud.com (http://www.morganscloud.com/2012/03/03/a-plea-for-help/comment-page-1/#comment-32511) – where they were “desperately” were searching for a replacement strainer for the one they had. Apparently, the old one was great, but it had come to the end of its useful life.

As an alternative, I would recommend the one pictured here. The length is adjustable, to fit inside any sink of a heeling vessel. Add a small tray and use in on the kitchen counter while in harbour. Fully collapse it for easy storage in a small space. The pictures tell the rest of the story.

In my mind it fits the slogan of one of the local supermarkets chains, Rema, the simple solutions are often the best ones. I presume the same goes for sailing gear, not only shopping for food, at least if one would ask Lin & Larry Pardey.

If you like the item, it can currently be found in the kitchen section of IKEA shops. The price is a whopping EUR 7 (approx).