O brother, wherfore art thou?

If you don't dare to make mistakes you'll never do anything new.
Having said which, putting black colouring in the second epoxy layer on my new boom wasn't a success. What I had hoped would give it a modern carbon-like look leaves it looking like a piece of impregnated pine you would buy at the local garden centre for a fence post.
No time to do anything about it as we are off to the Schildweek in an hour's time, but when we get home I'll sand it back to bare wood and start again.
Unless of course it turns out to be a very fast fence post.

Solar energy has arrived

A combination of some fine carpentry on Claudia's part and some fairly simple wiring on mine means we now have 2.5 m2 of solar panels on the roof of the wheelhouse.
On connection they happily started pushing 14 amps into the houshold batteries. Tomorrow we're off for a week's sailing at Schildweek, where the new panels can earn their keep.

Sneek - Leeuwarden #boadskipper

Boom again

Trial fit. Sail fits new boom perfectly. More epoxy and varnish then ready to race.

Stainless steel magic by Sjemstra.

On it's way

The new tiller is on it's way to Zeeland to be attached to the boat, which will the sail North to Terschelling.

IJsselmeer Optimist crossing

The GPS tracks of the Optimists, who sailed from buoy to buoy, and the Splashes [typical teenagers] as they crossed the IJsselmeer from Medemblik to Workum last Saturday.

Leaving Medemblik Regatta Centre. As they made the 15 NMile crossing the wind picked up and the sea state was very different when they arrived on the lee shore at Workum.

photo and gps thanks: Iris Sappé

One dimension at a time

Broken tiller

'Help, I've broken my tiller and I'm going on holiday next weekend'.
Step one - planing and glueing a new ash blank.

Big Boom Theory

New 16m2 boom is coming along nicely. Reckon it'll be finished just in time for Schildweek.
'Boom' (rhymes with home) in Dutch means tree.

Big Brother

As of lunchtime today we're sending out an AIS signal, required by new European law for ships longer than 20 meters.
Now everyone can see where we are all of the time.
www.marinetraffic.com
What's it good for? Search me.

Is this summer?

Wet, windy and grey as we wait for the Oostersluis to open on our way back to the UTD.

LED lights

These LED lights from Klemko are still my favourite. We've used them on a number of projects, starting with the Cinclus, and now at last get to use them on our own barge.
At 1.2 watts they are more than 15 times as efficient as halogen spotlights, no problems with warmth (degrees C nor light colour) and a hundred times more pleasing to look at.

(at last I've worked out how to put links in my mobile posts - I hope :)

Just here

Brother David's take on our short lived attempt to become North Nederland Champions in the 16m2.
photothanks to Luwe Strooisma

Boom

Glueing up a new boom for the 16m2 to replace the one I broke with David during the North Netherlands Champs.
The PRO measured the wind at 6 gusting 8 - too much for the forty year old boom.

Slow coffee

Fifteen years of living aboard Op Hoop van Zegen and still not finished building?
Time for a cup of hand wound coffee.