The 2013 Færder race was a nice experience with a crew of six.

Preben, Siri, Helge Tor, Tore, Jan Arne and me.

The conditions varied form little wind at the start, building up and, for once, we were not stuck in the Drøbak sound. But the wind stayed and buildt. We were sailing with the new carbon genua 1 and i considered a sail shift before the narrow sound but delayed it and then it was too late, we had to sail through to wider water to shift to the genua 2. This was not ideal and we probably lost a bit on that.

(We need a little time on starboard tack to hoist the new sail before lowering the old)

But the biggest loss we had by going inside Bastøy. The wind died. After a while we picked up a new southerly wind gearing west and we hoisted the spinnakker. Magic moments sailing through Bolærne picking all the other boats one by one. Helge was happy with the spi sheats! a new spinakker trimmer was born!

The beat upwind back to Horten was freezing cold and i bailed out for a while in the bunk. (I missed the long planned Eberspächer heater)

Result: Not too good, number 22 of 28. I guess it was mainly because of being parked inside Bastøy (once more!). I swear i will never ever go there agin. It is punishing most of the times i tried it.

All in all a wonderful race and also the transportation of the boat to the new harbour in Tønsberg.

During the winter i worked with improvements of the boat.

Most important i rebuild the engine room. I removed all the crap that was installed there, threw out everything and made a new engine box.

The motor room was a total mess:

Here it looks even not at its worst because the main battery is already taken out. This was placed on top of the gear box to the right. The main switches for engine and main electricity are sitting on the side of the box together with several 220 volt outlets (here already removed) and a 12 volt outlet. This made access to the port side of the engine impossible and e.g. changing the oil filter was next to impossible. The inside of the box was in addition to the big battery clampered with stuff like the loading regulator seen on the picture, and a lot of cabeling. All this resulted in making the engine impossible to maintain.

Here finaly the engine box is removed. I had to rip out all main electric cables and i threw everything away quite astonished how somebody could make such arrangements.

This was when my frustration was topped with the discovery that the engine only was hanging in two and a half suspension bolts out of four. One was totally loose and one was half loose.

I started with the maintenance. Replacing the exhaust bend that was rusted and the inner tube was broken loose. This causes cooling water to corrode the engine block at the outlet. I exchanged the exhaust tubes and the water hose to the bearing of the propeller axel. I also replaced the zink anodes on the engine. These havent been changed for years and were almost totally gone. It was a bit of a struggle to get the old ones out but with careful heating and a cooling spray and serious tools it went ok. The engine block looked ok still except at the exhaust outlet where there was some corrosion.

I removed the batteries from their original possition (the start battery was in front of the engine box and the main battery inside the box) i placed them to starboard. This new placement of approx 60 kilos battery would also correct a bit of the port heal of the boat giving it better ballance.

I replaced all cabeling and even replaced the engine stop handle. The main electric switches and the stop handle where remounted on the existing dashboard above the chart table. I added main fuses and new wires also helped.

I am so far happy with the new arrangements.

Stored for the winter.

 Last day 2012

 Regatta in BSF, We were Race Officers. There are over 40 boats on the picture.

After start big fleet.

A nice evening this summer in the harbour of Horten.