I am watching your channel as you document your travels to the Azores. I have seen your trip to Hawaii, and have seen several videos of Sven. I am so delighted to see you two together, and I am immensely tickled you have run into each other!
I am proud to be from the same country and even same town as Sven. He is a true inspiration and a real genius! What he doesn't know about sailing isn't worth knowing. Glad you found him, and it seems like you two really hit it off! :-) Also, his English is so perfect! He is almost one generation older than the first pupils having mandatory English in the Swedish schools. He must have learned this by himself. What a guy.
I deeply admire principled and consistent people like you, Yrvind. Thank you for existing. And, Sam and you will be great friends. I would also like to thank you for sharing.
I was out on a 40 foot converted tug boat in big swells in a shallow bay . The swells were at least 20 feet high. This rough crossing lasted half an hour. You cannot understand the power of the ocean unless you have experienced rough seas in a small boat first hand . I am glad to have had the experience myself. But never again will I go out in rough weather .I conquered my fear last summer I went out sea fishing for the first time in thirty years. I will probably go out again this summer. It’s beautiful in clement weather but scary as hell when it’s rough. Sam must have nerves of steel. Boat’s are fantastic but it takes somebody different to be able to traverse an ocean 👍
Goodness... Excellent conversation Sam and Mr. Yrvind; this explains a lot... I've noticed in SY's vessels over the years that he has a place for nearly everything (so it can be strapped in) from pencils to electronics, and now I see why -- At first I thought he was just a neat-nick, but now I see he is planning for a knock-down, or capsize, and equips his vessels so that it is as much of a non-event as possible... I'd guess this makes sense, since he's experienced it enough that he knows what to plan for...
Great insight, a capsize will happen are you ready for it when it does. The wife is not sure about dropping the cats to prove the point but I’m all for it.
Years ago in Mythbusters they conclude after experimenting that humans became seasick under low frequency movements, but at higher frequency nothing happen. That is why windsurfers and kayakers do not feel sick, but in bigger boats (lower frequency) people became ill. I do not remember at what frequency this happen.
Sven, you have been an inspiration to me. I have folled you since the BRIS days. When in my early twenties, I tried to design my own version of BRIS. It was 20 ft long and only 5 ft wide. It originally was going to have a draft of just under 2 ft. It was going to have fixed Lee boards that I then called 'clamp boards', as they attached at the sheer clamp, and extended down from there to to the bottom depth of the hull. They splayed out at the bottom, so the boat was wider there than at the sheer. Over the years, I decided to replace them with bilge keels, to make docking less interesting. A primary design goal was to have a large carrying capacity. About 40% of its total, maximum weight was to be provisions. When I learned enough to do the math for stability, I was somewhat disappointed to learn that it could only stand a very limited rig of about 160 sf (for a 3,300 lb max displacement). Because of its narrow beam and the fact that it is a double ender, all the very limited accommodations had to be in the middle of the boat, so the mast had to go way up front, or be offset. My solution was a ketch rig with 2 or 3 sails. I settled on a cat-ketch with an experimental lug main and a flat-cut leg-O-mutton mizzen. The main somewhat resembles a Chinese lug, but has far fewer boomlets. This was to make reefing faster and simpler. This boat would have no cockpit, no life-line stanchions, but would have two jack-lines (one port and one starboard) to clip a safety harness onto. It would be mostly worked from below decks. It would have no steering vane or auto-pilot. Robin Knox-Johnson had 2 vanes on his famous ketch, one on the port side an one on the starboard side. By mid-voyage, he tossed them both into the sea. He completed his epic, non-stop voyage with just his sails to keep his course. A major design consideration was to make it simple enough to be built by someone with very limited skills, and not need any specialize work. So no metal keels, and as few specialized fittings as possible. Originally, it was to be water ballasted. But the water took up too much space and too big a portion of the all-up displacement to work. So, the water ballast got replaced by sand bags (which would work), and they got replaced with concrete keels. Each step of the way reduced the amount of ballast needed. I have played with this design for decades. It has given me some joy when I have been feeling down. It will almost certainly never be built, but I have learned a lot while playing with its design. And much of my original ideas were inspired by you and your adventures.
Oh, wow. This is good stuff. I always feel stupid with my bucked when there is only a 1.5 meter swell and I get sick on an 46 meter museum navy vessel I work on. Quite a stiff breeze and I solder trough just fine...
I would really enjoy an in depth sailing trip filmed on Exlex and Sven.....perhaps another ship close by for exterior and some good cams for interior. This guy is the real deal. Unfortunate that Canada confiscated his vessel instead of lending a helping hand if he even needed it. I can only hope my drive and health is as good as Sven's in 20 years.
I like how Sven always brings it back to humanity and laws of nature. Many people on this planet have little to no comprehension of how 'Mother Nature' operates.
Did not know you had a channel, Sven! You are a legend! Love your unconventional ideas around engineering, boats and life in general. Hälsningar från Göteborg!
Yrvind uses some of the advantages of composite materials - but not all - if you do you get a Ministransat - that can sail fast and safe in almost any condition - while Yrvind is just drifting with the wind and currents most of the time.
So, if you capsize how to you re-right side up? If you are strapped in and all the hatches buttoned up? How you get back on the right side of floating?
