“The Hero With a Thousand Faces,”

 

The call to sailing for me is an instinctual one.  It is a physical thing more than an intellectual one.  It is Bushidō a movement without thought.   A passionate inquiry of truth.   A sacred place where I find myself where I experience being alive.  I am deeply happy when I sail.  I feel alive and in rapture.   It defines my humanity.  It is where I find my adventure where the certitude of mediocrity and the allusions of our everyday normal self are destroyed.  Heroism is simply a matter of integrity.   It is what we do and how we act out of sight of land "in the wild places when no one is watching".   If  perhaps "The call to adventure, it seems, has an affinity for people with empty pockets". Then we should all take vows of poverty.  The rich still don't own the endlessness of void and thought.  It takes courage to project a path across a such a hostile environment but the alternative is not a life.  Sailing is the last great freedom it's what I do.

Stability More or Less

The suggestion of  changing from iron to lead ballast on an Albin Vega 27

 

If we went to the trouble of changing the existing ballast to lead on an Albin Vega 27.   The centre of gravity (CG) of the total ballast could be lowered about 9 cm (3 1/2").  This could be useful for those seeking head room or storage.

 

The centre of gravity of the whole boat in cruising trim 2800 kg or 6175 lbs is lowered about 25 mm (1").   

 

Is that significant?  Well it would be a lot of work.  I changed the ballast on my previous sailboat a Halman 20 from steel punchings to lead and although it made the boat stiffer  her performance suffered slightly.

 

What does this mean in terms of increased stability when sailing.  In the drawing taken from the original owners manual at the amidships section of VEGA is shown the specs for a heeled angle of  20°.

 

The length of the righting arm is 32cm (121/2") and the righting moment is consequently  896 kg (6500 ft. lbs).

 

With the new lower centre of gravity (lead)  The righting arm would be increased by 9 mm 3/8" that is it.

 

Heeling at 30° the increase would be 12,5 mm (1/2") and the righting moment to 921 kg

 

This is an increase of 25 kg (180 ft. lbs) or 2.8%.

 

Important to note the manual states that the same increase in righting moment can be achieved by increasing the weight of the boat by 75 kg (165 lbs) or by moving one person weighing 80 kg (176 lbs) a distance of 31cm (1 ft.) to windward.   Allowing a light boat for the bay sailor interested in winning races and providing reserve ballast to be used by the long-distance cruiser or family sailor.

 

 

What I get from this is that the current design is an optimal one.  If you are the dude who likes to race around the bay the Vega is a light displacement sailboat and perfect.  For a cruiser ( for example) diesel fuel weighs approximately 7.2 pounds per gallon.  giving you room for an extra 23 Gallons which consequently increases your engines range by about a full day of motoring.  ( you could have a little more rum).   Food comes in at  5 to 6lbs per person per day.   Suffice it to say, this is  a beneficial thing.

Skipper and Mate

It was a good season for Maggie who was made to suffer endless drills and continuous training in adverse conditions.

Albin Vega lines

I find the Vega very well balanced and cool to sail. She heaves too in any condition which allows me to reduce sail when I an singlehanded. I don't like where they have put the engine panel as If the cockpit ever gets filled I am certain it will fry the electrics and I will consequently lose my engine.  I plan to at least coulk the guts out of this and look at doing something diffrent at some point.

Delivering Quick Silver 4 to NFLD

This was a great trip of about 740 nautical miles to NFLD.

Hard over

 

Fenrir sitting on her mooring

Small boat big heart

M

The man and the bucket theory

 As a shipwright in the Royal Canadian Navy I understand that during critical damage control situations one must address the flood by slowing it until it can be handled by the pumps.  I have a soft wood plug tied off at all of the ten through hulls.  (Ten seems a lot to me).   My bilge is clean and clear thanks to the removable plug,  degreaser,  and elbow grease.     The man and the bucket theory would seem reasonable until you realize that you can't actually get a bucket into the bilge.   What I witnessed today was the engines ability to move a substantial amount of water in a remarkably quick time.  Closing or throttling the overboard valve is obvious.    Like I said "I love my Vega" it has a capasity which other sailboats do not.  As undefinable or unmeasurable the volume or capacity of a 13 HP engine might be it is more than none.   Which somewhat makes  up for the ten through hulls

Main engine to empty the bilge

I love my Vega.   I flooded the bilge today (deliberately) with a fresh water hose.   It seems counter intuitive to fill the bilge all that nasty water inside the boat.   I started the engine first time  it works like a charm.  With a flick of a couple of valves the water is drawn not from the overboard intake but the bilge its self.  .   The water from the bilge is quickly spat out the back cooling the engine as it go's and allowing an engine to be flashed up on the hard.   It runs  great and all the gages could be checked all prior to a launch.   This also confirms significantly  that my main engine can be used to empty the bilge in a very powerful way during an emergency.   I really respect those Swedes designers.  Every boat should be capable of doing this.  Sincerely John

In the Beginning

Well this is the start of my Blog A new (to me) sailboat  an Albin Vega 27  (Hull 3319)got her at Christmas and I am getting ready to launch.  don't have too much to say yet but I plan to write about my experiences as they develop.