Nosy

"Popa sueca..."

I do have a crush for peculiar boats. They seem to have more stories to tell than off the shelf plastic boxes - specially about the people who have built and own them. Be that good stories or not so good.

Suiá seems to be one of those peculiar boats with a story. Built out of wood on "Ilha da Conceição", it was used for dive fishing in the Arraial do Cabo region. Later it was transformed into a sailing vessel, and made its way to the Caribean and up to Florida, in the seventies. The boat is now beeing refitted by Sergio, who fittingly described the boat as being a "trainera de popa sueca e proa groenlandia". Now I can see why.

Above you can see the "popa sueca" - the round canoe stern.

Here is the boat lying on anchor in the Granadine Islands, in Caribean.

Forming the cabin

The cabin is slowly being sculptured. João builds a little, I ask for changes, adjust... and slowly we get to the form that I have in my mind. I suppose that next week we will be pretty close to the final form.

Entrada na Barra Pequena

Historic picture taken from Cayru II. Entering the Guanabara Bay, looking towards the Corcovado mountain.

"Trainera de Popa Sueca e Proa Groenlândia"

I've got a cool e-mail from Sérgio, who lives in Miami.

He mentions a boat, and describes it with an Brazilian expression, saying that it is a "Trainera de popa sueca e proa groenlândia"... (to non portuguese speakers, it means: "a trawler with a swedish stern and goenlandish bow"...

A very odd expression, indeed. Even being so odd, it seems, in a very distant corner of my brain, a if I have heard it before. But I have no idea of what it means. Can anybody help??? I'm sure Sergio can...

The images are by Christian Gaul. They don't have much to do with the issue. Sergio might find it interesting that the image on top was taken in Arraial do Cabo, where his famous trainera originated... But other might enjoy anyway: http://www.christiangaul.com/

Morning light by Forselles

Another beautifull image by Forselles. Nice colours.

Sails

Beautiful image of traditional working boat sails by photographer Pierre Verger. The image was taken in the Satete of Bahia, where Pierre Verger has done many of his studies. Many of the working boats carried sails set from short masts and carried a long flexible gaff. A small, sometimes tiny jib completed the sail inventory.

Checking options...

Eric, from France, has suggested, that I should look into the gunter rig, specifically as designed by Bernd Koeler.

Indeed, the gunter rig is an option that I consider very suitable to the Arpex project. And, as a mater of fact, it was my first preferred option, as you can see from early project illustrations. The were drawn in the early stages of design, in 2006.

I think the gunter offers a series of advantages, which fit this project very well; like low center of effort, low center of gravity, "self reefing" though feathering, and other. In the end I have given preferrence to the Wharram sofwing sail due to its availability. Construction is well documented in building blogs, and building plans can be purchased for a reasonable fee at the Wharram Office.

But, Eric has triggerd my curisosity, and I have contacted Bernd Koeler to check options. Who knows? Maybe the gunter is something worth comming back to? See Bernds design of the KD 650 below. It is a lowely cat, with an interesting rig, indeed. Thanks for the hint Eric.

Sailplan

A collection of images to illustrate the alterations I made to the sailplan developed by the Naval Engineer.

I'm pretty settled on the final plan, which is illustrated above. But I'm still pondering over the need, or the configuration for the boom. Wharram rigs usually do not carry a boom, and I do see the advantages of that in terms of safety for the crew. But I do still have doubts regarding the performance. Since my mast is not in the center of a beamy cat-platform I do not have many possibilites to flatten the main without a boom.

I am in contact to the Wharram Office to purchase building plans. And hopefully they can help me on the boom issue. I am receiving good advice from Tiki users on this regard also, who strongly advice not to use a boom. Several design itinerations were needed to achieve a sailplan which had a Center of Sail Effort corresponding to the sailplan developed by the Naval Engineer. Below is one of them - not the final one. Note that the mast is still a little forward of the current position. This was an interesting process with a steep learning curve.

One of the amazing pictures by Forselles (www.forselles.com). It seems that this is his view from the living room. Not too bad... Luxuries available to those who live in Rio.

The weather is not good at all today. I hope to have gluing weather tomorrow.

Breaking the 50 knot barrier

Cabin shape

All in all I'm happy with how the cabin shape is comming out...

Good day for a swim at my local beach

Despite a bad forecast, today's holiday was awarded with a bright and sunny day. I threw my good intentions of doing some more gluing on Arpex over board and went for some swimming at my local beach, Praia Vermelha.

The picture was taken from the website: http://www.forselles.com.br/. Forselles has some impressive pictures of Rio de Janeiro in his blog.

50 knot barrier broken

The french hydrofoil boat Hydroptere has broken the 50 knot barrier. In 28 knots of wind it made a 500 meter run with an average speed of over 51 knots. Quite a feat.

In times where all sorts of boats, proas, monohulls and ocean going multihulls are already averaging 40 knots over extended periods, it seems that more amazing feats are to come.

Amazonia 360

Globo offers a special about Amazonia. The site offers some cool 360 degree images, which permit an interesting look into the amazonian day-to-day. Check it out here.

My favorite is this one.

Taming the monster

João has cut down some of the cabin sides according to my markings. The criterion was to have sitting height (barely), when sitting on the bunk. This will leave generous sitting height when sitting on the seats in the hull center. But I still found the thing a little bulky, and have therefore asked him to chop it down some more. Mainly in the front section.

It is a delicate ballance between liveability and looks. I don't want the boat to look like an eggbox, but still want a reasonabely confortable room inside. Of course nothing of this would be a problem if I had only added 2meters (6ft. to the boatlenght... Maybe I'll have to build a bigger boat some other time afterall ... ;-)

View from the Bridge

My good friend Ricco took this nice pictue from the bridge of his ship, which lay at anchor in the Guanabara Bay.

Brazilian Classics - Cayru II aka Sagres V

Mr. Eduardo Hamond Regua, the new proud owner of one of the finest Brazilian classics Cayru II, has kindly sent in some interesting historic pictures of his new boat. The winner of the 1953 edition of the regatta Buenos Aires - Rio is today named as Sagres V. Mr. Eduardo, who has recently acquired this carrier of Brazilian nautical history, reported that he will give the boat a refit before putting it to good use.

And, I was happy to hear, he will give the boat back its original name, Cayru II. Doing so he will do a good service to the nautical history of our country.

Above, Cayru II is entering the Guanabara Bay, with the Sugar Loaf in the backround.

Here Cayru II lies on the pier, before the regatta, still in Buenos Aires, along with other competitors. It is interesting to see, that Cayru II is the smallest in the row. The designer Olin Stephens designed his boats light and nimble, incorporating modern design concepts. This allowed his designs to win races against bigger competitors.