Arpex Sailing

Arpex has not been pictured very often from the outside while sailing. These were taken in december 2019, by my sister, and I have missed to post them here. Lovely pictures, which some of you might enjoy. They were taken on a windy gusty day. The uphaul of the boom, is pulled in a bit tight, which lets the main spill out some wind. Since I had crew on board with little sailing experience, I thought it better to play it safe, since Arpex accelerated in quite lively ways during the gusts, and the ama, occasionally indicated that it wanted to get up.... 

From the Master Gery Dierking - Vaa Motu

Here is a lovely video from the tacking outrigger and proa canoe master, Gary Dierking, sailing his lovely Vaa Motu. It has been posted already 8 years ago, but somehow I had never seen it,... or maybe I saw it and forgot... Anyway I loved to see it.

Early Morning Sanity Check

 IN the past two months Adri and I have been keeping at home, in quarantine, going out only for grocery shopping. But, for the third time I went to the boat, to check if all was in good order. I took advantage of an early wake up, and went there at sunrise! What a lovely start for the day, with glorious light.

I took advantage of it, for a photo shooting of Arpex. Jeez... I am a sucker for my boat. It really is the most beautiful thing.

 Luckily the seawater was also very clean and transparent. I took advantage of it and took a splash. The most gratifying you could imagine. It really charged my batteries. All in all a morning as beautiful as you could ever wish for.

Big Brother Watching

Every now and then I check on Google the current images on Arpex, as seen from space. This time I was surprised to see that Google had update its imagery, with a picture taken when I was on the boat. This can bee seen by the tender on the stern, and the cabin cover off, with bimini open. It is impressive to see the details which can be recognized on a picture taken from space. Even the rope holding the tender can be faily recognized.... Incredible. 

Quarentene Mobile

the current pandemia has put us all in quarantine, and thus sailing Arpex has not been possible. Having, thus, more time inside, I have come back to building kinetic art in form of mobiles. It is an activity which I fin very relaxing, and rewarding.

At this time I continued the development of my bromeliad series, with, what I found, a quite pleasing result. The bromeliad series is inspired in the tropical vegetation of my home city, Rio de Janeiro. The mobile is medium sized, built of 28 pieces made of aluminum sheet and stainless steel wire, painted a lovely yellow color, and polished natural aluminum, and it has and gracious balance and sensible movement. I measures about 75cm in height and 68 in width.

Quarentene

The year 2020 is marked by the Corona-Virus Quarantine. My wife Adri and I have been keeping it, and have kept ourselves at home for most of the time, going out only to purchase food. My work, fortunately, has been done from home.

However, on my 50-est birthday, on April 29th, my wish was to visit Arpex, and so we did. It was wonderful to spend a while on the boat and enjoy the moment there, together. A colorful sunset and perfect temperature made for a lovely setting for our little private quarantine on our home afloat.

Early Testing picture

In these days of quarantine, in 2020, I am happy to have documented my boat construction and sailing in the past few years. It provides me with a surrogate for the real thing.

In this picture of early testing phase, you can see that the front windows were still covered in film.

Too long time no sailing....

Watching the next generation

 Yesterday I went out with my sister, to watch nieces and nephews competing on the water sailing 29-ers, 420-ies, and Lasers. It was a lovely day, and a colorful spectacle.

Wish you all a happy new year!

Widespread Panic- Ride me High

I love to browse in my old postos, back in the archives of this blog. At least I can confirm good musical choices for the "soundtrack of the blog". After watching and listening to an old Widespread Paic video, I found this, and considered it fair to share it here.

Repost from March 2012

A razzle dazzle picture, that I really like. taken in Dubai, year 2012.

Windy Sail on Arpex

Last weekend I took Arpex out on a gusty, windy day, together with Sascha. The gusty conditions imposed challenging and fast sailing. On a stronger gust, Arpex even tried to lift the ama out of the water. I was happy to have a light release position for the mainsheet. I used it well, to dump the pressure on the main. It was interesting to also notice that the release was not as easy as thought, de to the pressure on the sheet. But nonetheless, the release went fast, so no real danger occured.

We sliced the bay in great speed, with a maximum velocity at 11,8 knots. - logged as a 30sec. average. 

I suppose these might be among the most challenging conditions yet sailed on, with Arpex. The boat felt ok, even if, I was happy to be back o the mooring, at the end of the afternoon. Tacking went wrong on the first try. And, unfortunately, we were even caught in irons, as the boat drifted backwards, due to the windage, after the missed tack. It happened better when I tried it again. 

Luckily, nothing broke. Since I haven't sailed too often in the last months, I was a bit concerned. It has rained much, and humidity and rain has been abundant. 

The lovely mobiles by Mark Davis.

No Bullshit. Just Sailing - NBJS

Erik Aanderaa does a great job with these videos. He tells us a great story. And he does it in perfect production and editing. Hats off. I think this will fly.

Arpex Improvement Opportunities on the Main

There is one thing, which I would like to improve on Arpex, and I am not sure how to. It is the main-halyard arrangement. Arpex uses a wharram-style softwing sail, with a short gaff on the top. The halyard goes down from the top, through the gaff, and then through the mainsail sleeve.

the issue with the arrangement, is that there is quite a bit of friction in the system, and hoisting the main can be quite an effort. I usually have to winch the final 2 meters up the mast. And it is not such a big and heavy sail. The problem is the friction. I would love to have an arrangement which makes it a bit less of an effort to hoist the main. .... But I am not sure on haw to do it.

Plans for Range Extension

It has been a while now, that I have been making plans for an overnight sail on Arpex. Some of the items on my To-Do List, prerequisites for a longer sail, was the checking of the electric wiring, to get the navigation lights back to work. This I could do recently, with the good help of  young chap, who was equipped with a Voltimeter, and knows his ways with the tricks of electricity. Which is a field where I still have lots to learn. Well, this is done now.

Now I just need to get the netting done for the bow area... But that is not a hard necessity to go. I also have a stove, to get some hot meal, and a coffee,... So now all I need is a free weekend with favorabe weather.

New Seat?

I am considering to install a private seat inside the cabin of arpex. It is supposed to serve as a porta-potti. Advantage would be the modern, gravity feed dumping system, which would be smell free, and eliminate the need for maintenance. However, I do dread to cut the hull side to allow the direct disposal of waste .