Reading Time: 6 minutesThe square metre boat cruising variant Swede 55 delights sailors all around the globe. Although series production ended in 1979, with Gamle Swede as hull number 27 launched by Fisksätra Yard, 18 more boats followed. One of them, and the most interesting technically and in terms of sailing, is Cheyenne. Göran Lindgren got his dream boat for the Stockholm archipelago. …
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe English yard Spirit Yachts is building boats with substantial superstructures to accommodate human needs like full standing height below deck. This Spirit 52 D reminds on the mayor purpose of a sailboat to look nice, to be admired and enjoyed. For this custom-built manufacture, headroom and similar considerations seemed secondary. It is a kind of 52 foot Dragon. Spirit …
Reading Time: 6 minutesWhich profile is ideal for the rudder blade, different to the Swede 55 keel fin? What was common in advanced boat building in the 1970s? What is used today? Which shape helps to avoid the stalling effect? How you determine the ideal profile for your boat. Following the first article on suitable bushings for the rudder bearing and the second …
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhatever moves on a boat wears out and eventually needs to be repaired. Even the rudder blade. After stopping the noise at my Swede 55 with suitable bushings as described here, I noticed that it was still rattling. The question was why. So I dismantled it in the fall and loaded it onto the luggage rack of my car to …
Reading Time: 6 minutesEverything that moves on a boat wears out over time and will eventually need to be repaired or replaced. Here’s the story of old and persistently replaced rudder bearing bushings until a suitable solution was found. One of the issues that occupied me for some time on board my Swede 55 was the rudder, specifically the guide of the rudder …
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe appeal of a special type of sailing photography, showing the action half above and half of the aquarium-green water below. How southern German water sports photographer Ulli Seer became inspired by George Greenoughs “Psychedelic Surf movies” of the Seventies and Berlin outdoor photographer Soeren Hese later carried on. Technical challenges and how they were mastered in analogue times and …
Reading Time: 3 minutesWith its mix of traditional look and modern sailing technology, the 220 ft (ca. 67 m) Ketch Hetairos is the most interesting yacht of our time. An overlooked detail is the open rear in the style of the racing cutter of the early 20th. Century. Hetairos following Thames Tonnage Measurement For a while now, the shape of the English pilot …
Reading Time: 3 minutesStanding headroom is an issue aboard beautiful boats with limited freeboard. You can try to talk it away, but it doesn’t work. Because bending down below deck bothers. You can either change clothes in the open sliding hatch. Or you have a boat with a cabin structure permitting to cook, brush your teeth, use the bathroom and shower. The 115 …
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn the 1970s, admirers of the Dragon, 30 square metre boats, Lacustre or the Folkboat had a problem. Wooden boats need a lot of attention and work. Further, they are expensive to build new. That’s why they have been built in plastic ever since. At the end of the 1980s, Steve White took the opposite approach in his father’s Brooklin …
Reading Time: 6 minutesAn overlooked and notoriously underestimated topic is the weight of the boat. How heavy and thus under-rigged is it? Will it sail in light winds at all? And how much extra load, provisions, and luggage can it handle? Five examples. Concrete mixer or sailboat? Today, cruising boats are considered floating weekend condominiums. All the comforts are repeated aboard that we …
