Time to upgrade and expand our electronics on board. Yes, races can be won with basic instruments. And my philosophy is often “less is more”. Yet, measuring improvements over time, assessing performance and taking decisions onboard with aid of accurate data, do accelerate the learning curve tremendously. The keywords beingContinue Reading

Yesterday, Raymarine released version 4.6 of its software Lighthouse. Once again packing up plenty of features specifically for sailors. The company introduced a bunch of high-end technologies to the sailing masses back in the days. To name a few: portable autopilot (some still functioning); Seatalk1 bus, opening the way forContinue Reading

Spinlock Lifejacket Deckvest Lite Plus

We have been wearing the same inflatable lifejackets for about 7 years. And as every winter, I serviced and tested it. The key word being TESTED. Everything looked fine, but once immersed in the bathtub and inflated, it would retain its gas for about 15 minutes before deflating. Wear orContinue Reading

Sailing the Jeanneau Multiplast 30 OD, Ludovic FRUCHAUD IMACIS Copyright 2023

Cool to see the Doublehanded Offshore One design class coming to realisation. As a previous Jeanneau Sun Fast skipper, I am also very happy to see the all new Jeanneau Sun Fast 30OD becoming the chosen one design yacht. A little disappointed, but not surprised to see the price tagContinue Reading

J/80 painted with VC17m

The popular VC17m produced by International Yacht Paint will be retired from the market on May 6th 2024 and prohibited its use from November 8th 2024. So what now? I was hoping in a conversion paint that can be over coated, however, International reply is “If you want to continueContinue Reading

Point higher and sail faster

Want to point higher and sail faster? Jimmy Hellberg in collaboration with the West Coat Sailing Association (Västkustens Seglarförbund) will run two seminars in February. The objective is to better understand how “it all comes together”, rudder, keel, trim, rigging and so on. There is still time to wish TheContinue Reading

Surprise! We came to the harbour to unstep the mast yesterday evening and prepare her for the planned lift. And this is what we found. The sea has frozen. No way to lift as planned now. With the current weather forecasts we expect the layer of ice to increase considerablyContinue Reading

J/80 downwind doublehanded

It’s grey out there and every day darker than the previous. Time to look back and wrap up! The J/80 loves those zephyr-like winds, barely visible on the surface. 2023 was just the opposite. And yet we consistently performed with top results, often just short of a win. But weContinue Reading