The kerosene lamps on the forward bulkhead are burning with a coasy yellow light and the shadows are dancing around the saloon as the northerly gale that howls through the rig makes Ingeborg rock back and forth. Lotta is asleep in the aft cabin, she's working tomorrow, I'm not. Well, I'll be working on Ingeborg. We're only going to be away for 9 weeks, but there's so much to be done. I wonder what it would be like if we were going away for a couple of years? I hope I'll find out some day... This whole mini cruise is partly a way of getting away from work and the daily routines of living a "normal" life. It's also test to see if Lotta finds the cruising lifestyle appealing or not. If she does, then who knows where we'll end up eventually? For now, we are still at our marina in Malmö, Sweden and we won't set off until august. This weekend we're unstepping the main mast. Ingeborg has wooden masts and there's rot around the base of the forward mast. We had a hard time finding a shipyard that could fix it for us and it turned out to be quite expensive, so we'll do it ourselves. We'll cut off around 2 metres of the mast and replace it with fresh wood. It'll probably take little more than a week as the epoxy needs 48 hors before I dare turn the mast over. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Beleive me, we've considered everything from just shortening the mast to turning it upside down... Maybe we should just move the mizzen forward and be done with it! Who needs two masts anyway?I guess you'll be seing the progress, or lack thereof, in this blog. If I keep udating it and you keep reading it that is...
Anyway, tomorrow I'll be changing the instrument panel in the cockpit and remove some old instruments. I'll also clean up among all the cables. If I still have some time left I'll install the "new" autopilot. It'll be nice! We'll have a slightly used 15 year old pilot instead of a heavily used 30 year old pilot. Couldn't get any better! I'm worried about everything that needs to be done before we leave. Not so much because of the time it takes but because of the $$ it'll cost. We're hard pressed to make the budget anyway and we absolutely need a new propane stove. The one that's mounted now has no gimbals and no way of fixing the pots. We really don't want spaghetti and tomato sauce all over the galley and ourselves! We also need at least one new holding tank. Then ofcaurse, there's the "I want I want I want I want!!!" list which is pretty much never ending... It would feel a lot better if someone would buy our old boat, a 31 ft double ender. An excellent blue water pocket cruiser. Any takers!?
Ingeborg is a 1979 Transworld 41. She's probably derived from the original William Garden design and was built in Taiwan. The Transworld is a center cockpit version of the CT 41, Formosa 41, Island trader 41 etc. Ingeborg is 41 feet long (almost 50 feet with bow sprit and davits) and she weighs around 14.5 tons. She has a full keel and a ketch rig. These boats are often referred to as "Leaky teaky" and "Taiwan turkey". Mostly by really evil people who never sat their foot aboard one in their lifes, but sometimes also by their owners. Keeping this in mind, on this blog we are the only ones allowed to call Ingebord a "Leaky teaky" or "Taiwan turkey" and you should take care to remember that!
We bought Ingeborg in Germany in april and sailed her the 140 or so miles home in early may. I'm not really sure how we came to buy her, we were'nt really looking for another boat. I'll try to sort it out though... I guess we talked about long term cruising and Lotta mentioned that in the future, if we were to go do some serious cruising, she'd want a bigger boat. It should have at least two separate cabins so she could either get away from me, or lock me in (she didn't say which one) when she got tired of my company. Eger as I am to go cruising, I sat down in front of the computer and started scanning the internet. I wanted to show Lotta what kind of baots you could get for very little money if you turned your eyes towards west and the USA. As it turned out though, the brittish pound had taken a pounding (pun intended) and was very weak compared to the swedish crown, so there was a whole world of cheap... ish boats just around the corner. As we turned our eyes towards the brittish market, we found a few interesting ones but none fell to Lotta's liking, not until I stumbled upon a Formosa Sea Tiger in the med. It was cheap and required a lot of work but was sold before we had a chance to look at it. Anyway, after this Lotta was sold on the Formosa/CT/whatever and I think I might have been too. There were none for sale in Sweden and I didn't even know if they existed here. I talked about it with a friend at work and it turned out that not only had he sailed one, but it was (still is) owned by his friend and for sale. A CT 41 and only an hour drive from home! We went looking at it as soon as possible but Lotta wasn't too fond of the interior layout. A week earlier I had been in touch with a german selling a CT 41 center cockpit. At almost €80.000 it was way over our bugdget, but I e-mailed him for more pictures, which I got. She was just gorgeous and seemed to be in excellent condition, but the price tag was out of our reach. For two days I didn't respond to the e-mail and then I got another one. If we bought the boat before the end of march, we could have her for €55.000, which was just within our limits. I guess it might have been meant to be? Anyway, to make a long story short, she was just as beautiful as she semmed to be and here I am in the saloon of Ingeborg, typing away. Not only am I typing, I'm blogging! Something I thought was way too mainstream and that I once promised myself never to do... That's the definition of "lack of character"...
A few more pictures:
I guess we'll see where this blog, and we, end up in the future, but for now we'll try to keep it updated. First with the progress of work, then with the fun stuff :)
/Hampus aboard S/Y Ingeborg, Malmö
I'm excited for you and will be looking forward to your projects progress and the cruise.
ReplyDeleteEn fin sida, ja det ska bli intressant att följa utvecklingen. Grattis till den fina båten och god fortsättning. /Urban Medin
ReplyDeleteFöljer självklart er på resan. Har lånat Ulf Shenkmanis guide till kanalöarna och kollat lite runt på nätet. Klart intressant resmål.
ReplyDeleteVi har 2400 nM ToR och tänker försöka få 12 veckors ledigt kring 2013. Borde klara resan på den tiden med lite långhopp utan att vara jättestressade om vädret står oss bi.
Cia
Herb and laura. Thank you, so are we :)
ReplyDeleteUrban, Tack :)
ReplyDeleteCia, vi har ca 1500 sjömil och 8 veckor. Vi hoppas hinna, det som kan ställa till det är vädret eftersom det blir ganska sent på säsongen. Kommer vi bar ner så ska det nog gå fint att komma hem igen med alla lågtryck och mycket V-SV. Hur går det med båten?
Hur går ni om ni har 1500 nm? Vi har ca 700nm ToR till skåne syd. Och förhoppningsvis 12-13 veckor.
ReplyDeleteMed båten går det bra fast just nu är vi lite febriga och tar det lugnt. Lackad kommer hon vara senast i början av september i alla fall.
Ni har verkligen en fin båt. Där ligger vår intarsia i lä :)
Jag har bara mätt på det stoora översiktskortet och får det till ca 750nm enkel resa. Då går vi Malmö-Skanör?-Keilkanalen-Cuxhafen-Ijmuiden?-Dunkurque?-hoppar mellan en massa franska hamnar-Kanalöarna.
ReplyDeleteNär blir det sjösättning?
"Ni har verkligen en fin båt. Där ligger vår intarsia i lä :)"
Tack :)
Vi sjösätter förhoppningsvis i juni 2010. Längtar till en del dit även om det här med bygget är väldigt kul änså länge.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking boat, As a new owner of an older boat I can empathise with the work you guys are going to do. By the way, I love old boats and the work involved, I know, it is a form of madness. Please keep your blog up to date as it is facinating....Allan
ReplyDeleteThanks Allan. I've been reading some from your blog. It's a nice project you've got going there!
ReplyDeleteWe like old boats too. Some say they give you trouble, but I like to call it personality :D
/Hampus
Just acquired a Fomosa 41 and yes it has all the problems I have read about. Buying and older boat is the same as buying an old car except the things which are wrong with a car are more familiar. It was quite a shock to turm the main boom over and have it fall to bits literally!!! The main mast head will also require surgery. The only downfall is that I wanted to move her from Southern Britain to the West country before Winter set in. However that looks unlikely now. Looking at the work you have put in gives me great heart. It's just a matter of determination in the end and like you I am determined not to let natures natural processes get in the way.
ReplyDeleteHappy Sailing. From Jesse.
Aside from the problems with old boats and needed repairs and such - how do you like the way she sails? I'm over 6'4" (1.94M) and finding a boat with such headroom put me on Sailnet and reading your post. Appreciate you doing a blog by the way - or I never would have been able to learn from your experience. Originally I was trying to stay under 30 feet (9.1m) since I will be single handing and haven't sailed in years. But when I considered living aboard a boat on which I would bump my head all the time, I started looking at bigger boats. So do you find the increased room aboard and increased headroom worth it over your 31? Ease of sailing? etc? Bon voyage - Mark
ReplyDeleteps - do you still have the 31 footer? What kind? What's the headroom and length of berths?
ReplyDeleteHello Mark!
ReplyDeleteI really like the way she sail. She's no racer, but neither am I. She has a heavy, steady way of moving, she's surprisingly fast in light winds considering her displacement and she'll quite easily do 7-8 knots on a reach. The increased room is worth it most of the time :)
I measured the headroom before answering this. In the aft part of the saloon it's 1.98m and increasing as you move forward. In the forepeak and the forward head it's over 2 metres. Over the galley it's only 1.85 metres as it's located under the cockpit. Same for the aft cabin. I think you'll find even more headroom in the aft cockpit version of the boats, like the Formosa 41, CT 41 etc.
With the ketch rig she's very easy to sail. Sails are quite small and managable and it's easy to adjust the sail area and to balance the boat. Single handing is not a problem although with 15 tons she can be a handful in tight marinas. I would have run the reefs and halyards to the cockpit for increased safety while single handing though.
The 31-footer was an Amigo 40, a traditional swedish double ender built in GRP. Headroom was 1.81 metres and the bunks were over 2 metres. We don't have her anymore.
Fair winds
/Hampus