This boat is nuts., but sort of totally sane at the same time. Why have the whole boat heel over when you can just allow the rig to do it? I read about it in YM a while ago and thought: "Nice concept, but it'll never work". Guess I was wrong.
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| From Sailing Sweden - May 2009 - Kanholms Fjärden |
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| From Stockholm (Sept08) |
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| From Sailing Sweden - May 2009 - Sail to Sandhamn |
| Sweden Yachts corrupt bankruptcy (Dit schrijven we even in het Engels opdat de internationale blog gemeenschap zou kunnen meelezen.) Two years ago we ordered a new Sweden yachts 40 at the Hiswa in Ijmuiden. We paid 60% up front. It would be delivered 1 April. Last year September we visited the yard. There was not even the beginning of a boat. Sweden Yachts told us the hull was on its way. Which afterwards we discovered, was a lie. 23 March Sweden Yachts went bankrupt. No boat and money gone. No sign of owner Sven Enoch, alltough we were told he filled the fuel tank of his villa that morning and paid with Sweden Yachts money. A Norwegian entrepreneur was willing to take over the company and we would still have a boat. But Sven Enoch had cut up the company in a way there is nothing left to buy. The lie about the hull didn’t help either. It is a very sad thing for all Swedish Yacht builders. If Swedish law allows this to happen, Najad, Malo and Rassy can follow mr. Enoch’s example. Don’t say it won’t happen. Two years ago Sweden Yachts was the most perfect brand in yacht history. In the meanwhile we have bought a Sweden Yachts 42, nearly new, from Mr. Gunter Gielen and his wife Ann. It is such a beautiful boat. We thank them for keeping it so well, we can still go on with our plans. They made us very happy. We know it broke their heart to sell the ship. Anyway, someone somewhere should stop Sven Enoch from making more plans to put money of dreamers like us in his pocket without delivering a boat. Not just for us, but for all the hard working Swedes who put their heart into these wonderful yachts. |
| Two years ago I order a Sweden yachts 42 and now I’m in the same situation: no boat and money gone ! What is really annoying is that at least since August 2008 they knew very well the boatyard was going worse and worse and that they would not be able to meet their commitments . In spite of that Mr. Sven Enoch and his sales staff didn’t tell anything to customers. Well done !! |
This odd looking yacht is still on the hard at Bullandö. It looks quite sporty in many ways, but the double doors uinto the companionway look slightly cruisy. It has a massive swing keel and twin rudders, which along with the skiff like bottom make it look fast. No sign of the mast lying around anywhere.
Anyone know what it is?
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| Click image for gallery |
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| Sailing Sweden - May 2009 - Sail to Sandhamn |
Becks and Kent Lindberg (the instructor)
The process is actually quite simple:
In reality doing this is actually a bit nerve wracking as there's a big fear of ploughing into the rocky shore. I imagine it's much worse with an audience, but we've done it once now, so we should be ok.
Click thumbnail for gallery:
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| Sweden Sailing - May 2009 - Instructor Day |
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| Easter 2009 - The result of 5 days work |
We arrived at the marina at around 11ish after a late breakfast at Hotel J. We found the boat wrapped in plastic with its shiny new propeller, but found that the bottom had not yet been painted, which would be a problem if we planned to put her in today। A quick trip to the engineers confirmed that they hadn't planned to paint her till next week and so she'll be staying ashore for this trip.
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| Easter 2009 - First Day with our Boat |
It was raining too heavily to take the plastic wrap off (for our sake not the boat's), so we spent the day inventorying and disposing of crap.
Stuff we found:
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Click image for album |
Another eBay bargain... 1 year old Zodiac 260 with Acti-V hull - £425. These have now been discontinued and are only available in sizes of 2.85M and above which would have been too big for us anyhow. It was hard work inflating it and harder still deflating it.
| Rope cutter | £470.00 |
| Upgrade prop | £788.01 |
| Modification to accomodate cutter | £145.00 |
| Total | £1403.01 |
One of the points raised in the survey was the need for a new propeller - the existing one is badly pitted and I'm told causes some nasty vibrations. As with anything in the marine industry - the choices are endless. However they can be grouped into the following three categories: Fixed, Folding & Feathering.
| Type | Pros | Cons |
| Fixed | Cheap, Simple | Highest relative drag |
| Folding | Lowest drag | Traditionally poor in reverse & less power than feathering |
| Feathering | Best motoring performance both ahead and astern. Reduced "prop walk". | Higher drag than a feathering prop. |
This is a feathering prop made in New Zealand (as if the name wasn't enough of a clue). What makes it a little different from the rest is that the blades are plastic. They supply a spare blade as a part of the package, the intention being that these are sacrificial in the event of an underwater impact. It is pitch adjustable by the user with an Allen key. Whilst it doesn't offer variable pitch in the strictest sense, there is some clever trickery when reversing that makes the blades snap into "optimum" angle of attack.
Bruntons is a UK company and is definitely one of the leaders in the field. The offer the Varifold - a range of 2, 3 & 4 blade folding props and the Autoprop which is a premium feathering prop with variable pitch and a number of other special features. They also offer fixed props and at the boat show were exhibiting standard feathering propellers, but these are not mentioned on the website.
At the London Boat show, Bruntons had a tank with an Autoprop running in it. Every five seconds it would switch between ahead and astern propulsion. Seeing the blades feathering and unfurling for the new direction was really fluid, almost organic in motion. The Autoprop is a truly impressive machine, with only one significant disadvantage - Cost. We were quoted a boat show price of about £1700 for the saildrive model, which is about 70% more than a branded feathering propeller. That being said - I'm absolutely convinced that if I had a motor sailor or planned on lots of motoring I think the cost would be more than justified.
Gori is a Danish company who specialise in low drag folding propellers. Like Bruntons, they have their own magic that sets them apart from the rest. Their folding props are able to unfold differently for ahead and astern as well as providing an "Overdrive" feature which is a different blade profile for fair weather motor-sailing.
They also sell ultra low drag racing propellers, which would be tempting, except I suspect that these are built with sailing performance as being the primary factor, and motoring distant second. If I had a race boat they would definitely be on the list. Speaking of which, Swan mainly use Gori propellers. I feel that they let themselves down in terms of customer interaction. I mailed them for a quote and absolutely zero response two months later. Additionally there was no sign of them at the London boat show (although they do plan to be at Southampton). For the above reasons I can't tell you what these beauties cost.
Volvo Penta These guys represent the safe choice if you're already equipped with a Volvo engine and saildrive. They are obviously a Swedish company. They offer standard 3 & 4 blade folding propellers and represent the vanilla end of the market. I'd suggest that these are probably more appropriate for cruising boats in that they don't offer a 2 blade option for reduced drag that would appeal to the cruiser/racer market. Expect to pay around £700-£800 for a 3 blade folder.
Offering a range of feathering props, which seem to be the Oyster Yachts weapon of choice. Some positive user reports of these across the Internet.
Apparently the Managing Director of Gori left and created this range of propellers, which is claimed to be superior. They also appear to have good links with various boat builders. Interestingly there are relatively few user anecdotes across the net good or bad. After meeting Bruntons at the boat show we decided that we liked them as a brand: Friendly guys on the stand, British company, great products. Our main fear of going for a folding prop was the much fabled poor performance when going astern, but the Bruntons guys explained that with modern folders such as their Varifold, this issue is greatly reduced. This is due to a twisted blade profile - making it more similar to a fixed prop in terms of motoring characteristics. We decided that we valued the low drag of a folder more than the better motoring of a feathering or Autoprop. The same logic applied to 2 blade vs.. 3 blade, so we settled on a 2 blade Varifold. At £740 it was also nearly £1000 cheaper than the Autoprop.
It arrived in the post yesterday. My first comment is that I'd have liked to see a little better packaging. The bottom of the box was sagging from the immense weight of its cargo. When I opened the box it's clearly an exceptionally well engineered product and effortlessly glides between motoring and sailing configuration. 
I’ll post more when we fit and use it.
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| Silverpoint |
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| Barbados |
These relatively new top of the range Raymarine ST70 displays are different to traditional instruments as they can be configured to show the readout from any onboard sensor (wind/speed/depth etc) rather than the more conventional single purpose instrument approach.
 Re: Mediteranean Mooring with a Shoreline |
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Navigator & General - £425
We finally completed on the boat last week while we were Snowboarding in Val D'Isere - So it's ours now... Bit scary really. Above is from the web cam of Bullando Marina... I guess one of these boats is ours, but I can't figure out which.... 
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