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. Cement mixer or sailboat? Today, cruising boats are considered as floating weekend condominiums. Everything we know from a cosy home …
Reading Time: 2 minutesAre you still bobbing around or sailing already? Easygoing Square Metre Boats answer this question in their way. These beautiful light air windmills make something out of nearly nothing. About thirty boats, from classic 15 square metre boats to a modern cruising 55 are sailing the Slim & Tender Race (Schlank & Rank Regatta) off Fehmarn on the German coast …
Reading Time: 5 minutesHeadsail furling has obvious advantages. For cruising, where convenience and safety is paramount, the cloth is removed from the cockpit when wind picks up, before mooring or in an emergency. Further, this winding technique, which is in use now for decades, conveniently adjusts the sail area. This is interesting for charterers, all new to the sport, the occasional sailor, the …
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe advantage of modern Cruising Square Metre boats or Cruising Skärgårdskryssare like S30, Jubilee S40 or Swede 55 is that they come in durable and nearly maintenance free fibreglass. You simply enjoy your precious time aboard. Added to this is the well-thought-out construction of the largest model. The deck and superstructure of Swede 55 were made by Fisksaetra Varv as …
Reading Time: 2 minutesEvery sailor admires the Vindö cruising boats from the Swedish west coast. Vindös are seventies compromises worth looking at, made of a rock solid and easy-care fibreglass hull with a teak deck and a handsome mahogany superstructure. A tempting mix of practicality with the traditional look and feel aboard. The Dream of Lasse Ristikankare. In the 1980s, Finnish wooden boat …
Reading Time: 5 minutesSwede 55 can be enjoyed as built in the 1970s. Believe it or not and even if some do-it-yourselfers find it difficult: you can simply sail this boat as it is – with one exception: Unfortunately, the yard did not consider an important issue at the time, anchoring. A secure anchor that you can easily deploy and back on board …
Reading Time: 2 minutesA while ago, an American contacted me regarding the purchase of a secondhand Swede 55. As a previous Swede 55 owner, he was familiar with the boat. Enthralled by the 55, he found a particular boat on the eastern seaboard of the US and sought advice on whether to inspect at all or not. He booked advice to find an …
Reading Time: 2 minutesIt towers 18 metres into the blue and is ten percent bigger than the previous one by Swiss sailmaker VM Sails, which came with a short foot luff in the nineties. Five battens, two of them continuous at the top, stabilise the cloth. In the fall before, sailmaker Arnd Deutsch and I had discussed a special cloth and other details. …
Reading Time: 4 minutesUntil this proudly remembered Friday, end of May 2019, it is clear aboard Gamle Swede that we will meet a Twelve-metre class only at the start of the race. Then this 22 metre upwind sailing machine, powered by 240 square metres, is gone. No sailor will take that pack with dull presumption, so we prepare with due realism in Neustadt …
Reading Time: 4 minutesDoes a post about a single sail, this time a new jib, make sense? I think so, as sailing Swede 55 is mostly about upwind pleasure. And for a long time I sailed Gamle Swede with an old, worn out and to small jib. It was made by Canon/Västervik in 1979. For that long, you can use polyester cloth, also …
