The big event of the year!

The annual Færdern race is one of the biggest overnight regatta in the world. This year it had everything and turned out to be a triel in endurance.

We have had a nice start of the season. WIth a new set of sails, well its second hand one year old. We had two wednesdays sailing. unfortunately the main sheet broke last wednesday. Today we had a very nice and sunny day in Bundefjorden Rundt. the yearly race i participate to arrange for our club. We came second in the Express class and fourth overall of 40 boats.

We still have a small boat speed problem to work on but all in all regarding we were only double handed it went very well. The main gain we had because of a few good tacktical route desicions.

Picture showing the personal security system. The SPOT emergency transmitter, the yellow security line which is strapped to the jackstays running the length of the deck and the white footsling for climbing the hull. I later strapped the SPOT more properly to the selfinflating west. Backup systems include a hand held VHF and a trailing rope that could be connected to the tiller pilot and the stop button of the engine to stop the boat in case of falling over board. But i did not really depend on these and did not deploy them because i desided for being strapped to the boat in any case.

During this summer i prepaired Flax for touring and for single handed sailing especially. This included the updating of the security systems on board. The nightmare of single handed sailing is falling over board and the autopilot steadily steering your boat towards the horizon. I read up on single handed sailing and learned two things. Systems must provide that you stay with the boat and make it possible for you to climb back up. I made jackstays to hook onto and bought a SPOT personal satelite emergency system wich i strapped to my west. With this i could send messages and my possition to my dear wife Liv who was less than happy about my plans. She and my son Dan would recieve a sms and email with an ok message and my possition when ever i pushed the ok button. The system also had an emergency button which would trigger full scale rescue action. I completed this system with a footsling to help me climbing back on board when stuck on the side of the hull and not being able to make it to the transom and the ladder.

Read on by clicking the button below....

Flax is now in real summer mode.

The interior is very cosy with the textile bags on the sides. The cockpit is mounted with windbreakers. The sprayhood is mounted. Touring sails are mounted and the genua got its new ondeck sailcover so that rigging is done in minutes and the interior is kept free of sails.

After fixing the last details I took her out in a fresh breese yesterday single handed. It was blowing around 8 s/m i guess (16 knots). The waves had white tops and the sea was quite choppy. Even with full sails and only me to weigh her down she behaved very well and the tillerpilot had no problems to deal with the boat. Only when tacking the tillerpilot is too slow. This is because i think i mounted the pilot too far from the rudder hinge. Will check if i can replace it. I cope with this by trimming the main tight and loosen the jib a bit early to help the boat through the tack.

The logg showed 7,5 knots on the most so i had a great time.

Tips: When sailing with pilot trim with a wide steering groove: add twist to the sails and tighten the genua leach to make a round entry to the genua.

BTW the engine is repaired and new petrol hose is mounted. I only have to do a change to the petrol hose to make it possible for the tank to be stoved under deck while motoring. As it is now you have to take the tank on deck.