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Knockout criteria when buying a boat

Buying a boat is a risky step. Dreams, emotions, the desire to do something completely different are big, fuelled by a kind of midlife crisis and some money. Some even do it without a midlife crisis and little money. So let’s look at the knockout criteria when buying a boat. A boat is perceived as promise and a placeholder for …

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Upgrading a Swede 55

The advantage of modern crusing square metre boats or Skärgårdskryssare like S30, Jubilee S40 or Swede 55 is that they are made of durable and nearly maintenace 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 …

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Where to put the anchor?

Swede 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 …

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Which spar is it?

An S30 sailor wants a jockey pole for his cruising square metre boat for spinnaker sailing at closer angles. Together with matching eye plates to hang on the side of the mast this is no big deal. The boom and fittings are requested from the leading mast builder Seldén via the Hamburg agent Herman Gotthardt. Seldén probably supplied the rigging …

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Buying a new mainsail

It towers 18 metres into the blue and is ten percent bigger than the previous mainsail 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 fall before, sailmaker Arnd Deutsch and I had discussed a special sailcloth and other details. It …