-"1

r
7

O A l o n g a n d regular trade sea. T o m a t o e s o u t t o ripen on t h e life raft. S t r o n g f o l l o w i n g w i n d s h o w s an extra plus for t h e h i g h t r a n s o m of t h e Vega. W e o f t e n h a d surfing at 11 - 1 2 - 1 3 k n o t s . T h e w i n d v a n e is f r o m H a s l e r / G i b b s .

Four Thousand IVIiles Aboard The Albin Vega 1040 "Little IVIy III".

9 Little M y III o u t s i d e M i n d e l o , " o u r " harbour at t h e Cape Verde Island S a n t o Antao.

[1040

Across TOie Atlantic With No Problem Owing To Sensible Yacht A Careful Planning.
It's the night between the 20th and the 21st o f January. We sailed f r o m Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in a good, cool, breeze f r o m north north east. The wind increased and when we went down the wide channel between Gran Canaria and Tenerife the wind speedometer was at maximum (50 knots) for long periods. F r o m mainsail with a genoa f l o w n on pole we successively took i n sail to a reefed mainsail, took the mainsail completely down, and changed the genoa to a no 2 jibthis after breaking the pole i n the dark of the night against a lower shroud. The wind pressed the genoa so hard that we didn't feel the pole going on the shroud f o r having the genoa behave itself a bit better. I t was too dark to see anything. The waves are high and Little M y shakes, leaps and rolls. When telhng of a Transatlantic passage you must include the toughest and most dramatic episode. I n the case of our cruisewe f o u r who sailed Little M y f r o m the Mediterranean to Barbadosthis was the first night after Tenerife. Y o u , dear reader, have to excuse us i f we say that none of us were worried. We slept calmly by turns except for the general upheaval at the time o f the pole incidenteven i f i t f r o m time to time was a bit uncomfortable. I n the log it's written: " Changed from genoa to no 2 jib. More pleasant riding but slower. Quite an uneventful night. Watch: Pelle, Mats, Henri, Ake. Lousy weather: cloudy, windy, high sea. A bit monotonous. Gybed the jib at 21.00".

The worst part was Viksten in the Swedish archipelago

To sail a cruiser o f about 27 feet over the Atlantic doesn't necessarily bring more hardship than you'll find during a normal season i n , f o r example, Sweden. T o be frank, the only danger we had together with Little M y , was a very rough and tricky visit to a skerry called Viksten i n the summer '71. Rough seas and a try to f i n d a lee f o r breakfast at this unfriendly rock by Landsort on the Swedish east coast. Tiredness, a blunder, and a sheet in the screw when we tried to start the engine and our cruise to the West Indies nearly ended up before i t started. W i t h Little M y lying on her starboard side with her mast nearly horizontal, crashing towards the skerry pushed by the 3 feet waves. But she stood it and we came afloat one experience richer. Normally both cruising in your home waters and Transatlantic passages are a bit calmer, and there's no doubt about it, a boat built f o r cruising around the Swedish coast will, with reasonable modifications f o r security, also manage bigger oceans. We started our Transatlantic passage i n the Mediterranean. Little M y was transported by railroad to Barcelona i n Spain. The owner, Pelle Norelius, sailed with his family to and around Mallorca. The real passage started f r o m Gibraltar i n October 1971. The first part, Gibraltar Tenerife, is about 800 miles. This cruise was a pleasant surprise. O f course we had good confidence i n each other and i n the yacht. But we imagined that this would be quite a tedious and slow struggle to take Little M y a distance that is comparative to StockholmHull around Denmark. We left Gibraltar the 1st of October 1971 at 13.52 and reached the harbor o f Santa Cruz, Tenerife, the 7th of October at 05.00. Five days, fifteen hours a good 5 knots average. The best distance over a day and a night: 166 miles.

time long and regular sea Little M y surfed periodly at 10 13 knots but was never other than dry and comfortable. We were able to sail away w i t h the w i n d ; a heavier displacement boat, even i f it were bigger, would probably have more trouble with the heavy sea, been taking more water, and been forced to reduce it's sail area more than we did. We returned to Tenerife and Litde M y in January. After victualling and new antifouling paintingwe put her aground alongside a wreck at high water and painted her in the light f r o m a lamp during the night when the water was low we left to see i f our fast journey to Tenerife was a unique one. We had about 900 miles to "go.

Where to find the Cape Verde archipelago?

A f t e r six daysthe first night's hard weather was followed by gradually softer winds and soon we had a nice cruise i n the trades we figured we should have reached our aim. According to the log and the plotting f r o m our direction finder we were supposed to be at Sao Vicente in the Cape Verde archipelago and should, because o f this, also have made a new record cruise. The only problem was; We couldn't see any island. The log; "The high and rocky Cape Verde Islands are mostly covered by a heavy smog, called the 'harmat tan'. It is caused by the trade wirid which carries sand and dust from Africa. We were 4 miles from the 1800 feet high Sao Vicente before it appeared in the smog. We .sailed in to Mindelo, with the strange pyramid rock Los Passados in the channel as our steering-point. We couldn't see the slightest thing of the 6000 feet high island Santo Antao situated only 8 miles west of Sao Vicente". We had sailed 975 miles i n 6 days and 15 hours f r o m Tenerife which gives an average o f a bit more than 6 knots. F r o m a statistical point o f view our transatlantic cruise confirmed what we already thought; W i t h mosfly following winds through the trades Little M y makes a good 6 knots. F r o m Mindelo on the Cape Verde to Barbados we had the wind f r o m east to north east mainly with the force about 612 knots, but a few days also 3040 knots. Sailed distance 2171 miles, average speed 6.2 knots, the best distance over a day and night 163 miles, average distance 149 miles. Our time, 14 days and 16 hours, is according to the

No, we didn't lie

This is quite a good result f o r a cruiser of 27 feet. We had the opportunity to compare with other crews on other boats i n Santa Cruzand to be f r a n k they thought we lied a bit. O T h e w h o l e c r e w f r o m a camera aloft at t h e m a s t h e a d . But the conditioifs were the best f o r our A l b i n Vega. We had a following or near following wind, mostly more than 20 but seldom more than 30 knots. This gave a high but at the same

Azores

Gibraltar

Canary Islands

I Cape Verde Islands

Barbados

secretary of the Cruising Club of Barbados the best he knows of (even i f a bigger boat without doubt should be able to do it faster). I t is a bit hard f o r us to see this cruise as any f o r m of a record. We never had to struggle. Sometimes it was a bit inconvenient as always when you sail a small yacht in high sea and can't find a peaceful harbour. But in general life on board was comfortable and sometimes even luxurious, and that's the way it shall be. Our log contains most of the explanation of why i t went like this and some tips about what could have been better. Some excerpts: " the dawn we caught the trade. Wind a bit to the east. The sicy cleared up, even some sunshine, a bit warmer. Put up the mainsail and poled out the jib to port. The wind force shifts, some big squalls give an extra push".

Everybody can't have a "French c h e f on board as we had. Henri had some experience f r o m a Paris luxury restaurant. But good f o o d and plenty of i t means a lot for comfort. It's also a matter of security. Hunger, tiredness, discomf o r t and disagreements on board have a close connection to seasickness, no enjoyment i n work, negligence, misunderstanding and wrong decisions. " Mats healthy again after a sore throat treated with penicillin. Ake, who has been on sleeping pills, is getting better and so are his sore ribs. Henri and Pelle shared the watch to-night. Saw a merchant ship and some blackfish". A small drug-storenot just a first aid k i t is something you absolutely need on board. So much can happen in a few days. Discuss i t with your doctor, and try to teach some members of the crew how to handle the drugs and surgical tools you have. ''Spinnaker up at 14.00 GMT. Mats went aloft to rig a block for the lift". A l l repairs and maintenance jobs should be done at once. I n this case we should have rigged the block when we where in harbour and not when we discovered that we needed i t . There is work enough to be done at sea. On a cruise of this kind, you sail i n one week what you normally sail during the whole season. This means a l o t of repairs to be done, in shape of worn sails and sheets. Y o u need spare parts and tools in all forms for repairing rigging, sails, blocks, sheets and engine.

ker and went on with mainsail and genoa flown on pole. 5 7 knots, easy wind, steared by hand at two hour watches. Hot day. Wet cap on helmsman, shower with bucket on fore-deck". Spinnaker is not a suitable sail for a longdistance sailor, i f you are not in an extreme hurry. We did o f course our best distances with help f r o m the spinnaker, although we just used i t i n reasonable wind forces. But you have to have a fat bank account i f you want to use it f o r longer periods. I n the ocean swells you will load the spinnaker and its sheets unbeleavably. A f t e r two or three accidents like this we gave up. One or two jibs on poles with or without mainsail is more comfortable. As you see we steered by hand also when without spinnaker, and the reason was that the wind vane didn't have the precision we wanted. This was probably because of that i t had to. work a bit too hard in the bad weather days at the beginning.

We sailed according to weather statistics

I f y o u are doing a holiday cruise you hsten to the weather broadcast and sail according to it. I f you cruise like we did you select your route and time according to the weather statistics. We chose a route across the Atlantic well south in the suitable trade winds just north of the equator. There you can be quite sure of finding winds f r o m east to north east with reasonable force during the spring; Y o u rarely find any really hard weather i n this area before the hurricane season starts in June. "Contact with the Tangier Radio. Mats connection home to Stockholm, and got just ten minutes". ordered itafter

Get yomself some blank forms for the navigation

"Most of the day we made astronomical navigation. Hard workbut now we have a) sunsight b) moonsight c) meridian d) longitude. And it all fits: position 15.00 GMT N1343' V43".

Spinnalter means lots of work for a long-distance sailor

"Spinnaker the whole night, varying wind force and sea. Went fast162 miles this day. Midway across the Atlantic ocean. As far to Africa as to South America". "The spinnaker was up all night again. Pelle took the evening watch. Busynot very much sleep for those who were off watch. Took in the spinnaker when the wind increased afternoon. Distance: 160 miles". "Dramatically tonight: Henri found himself at the tiller whithout spinnaker. The top slwckle parted, the spinnaker went ahead and was oversailed. The only thing we saw was the windward D-ring hanging from the pole. Took in the spinna-

Y o u cannot rely on radio contact with coaststations except at the beginning and final part of your passage. But i f you are i n an emergency situation you perhaps don't just think o f calling your wife. The most important thing is that somebody will hear you. Merchant ships listen on the Mayday frequence 2182. But you should of course take all the safety equipment with you that is needed, for example the equipment that is required by the rules for ocean racing.

French menu
" The menu of the day: Salade Vega du chef Spagetti a la Little My Melon Caf Vin: Dao 63".

Q T w o A l b i n Vegas a n c h o r e d at A n t i g u a in t h e Leeward Islands. D i m a G r i n u p s f r o m Degerfors, S w e d e n , is t h e o w n e r of " S a n d r a 11" cruising a r o u n d t h e w o r l d w h e n this w a s w r i t t e n ( D e c e m b e r 1 9 7 2 ) .

O Evenings a n d n i g h t s in t r o p i c a l seas offer y o u fantastic sailing in w a r m temperatures. W i t h blackfish p l a y i n g a r o u n d t h e y a c h t , a g o o d w i n d , full m o o n , a perfect w i n d vane a n d a t h e r m o s flask w i t h h o t black c o f f e e - w e l l , t h e n life is a b s o l u t e l y perfect. 0 The w a t e r s a r o u n d Santa Cruz w e r e terribly p o l l u t e d by o i l . W e s c r u b b e d a t h i c k layer a w a y before a n t i f o u l i n g by p u t t i n g Little M y a g r o u n d o n t h e tide, leaning her against a w r e c k . Q T o take a s h o w e r by bucket on t h e f o r e d e c k w a s e n j o y a b l e d u r i n g the h o t days in t h e trade w i n d .

i
Put in as much time at navigation as possible and use all methods in combination: dead reckoning, radio plotting, astronomical calculation. I t isn't as difficult as it sounds to navigate after the astronomical principlejust get a good handbook. Try to do a f o r m where all calculations are made up f o r you. When this is ready you just fill in your results f r o m your chronometer and your sextant. A n d with no more mathematics than common addition you can pick up your result f r o m the easy tables you can find today. It's better to put i n too much work on the navigation then too lite. This you will find out when you reach your aimvery httle uncertainty makes it dangerous to sail into any harbour. So much for our sailing with Littie M y . Just one more point: I t isn't necessary to sail the Atlantic. As far as I am concerned it was as thrilling to discover a little island outside our homeharbour with my little eight year old daugther, and as hard to sail safely f r o m Viksten on a bleak morning in the summer of 1971. Mats Fagerstrm

O T o stand u p r i g h t and steady is t h e biggest p r o b l e m w h e n tal<ing the s u n sight. 0 W h e n mal<ing a landfall, radio p l o t t i n g is n e c e s s a r y - o u r relatively simple m o d e l received signals as far as 2 0 0 - 3 0 0 m i l e s . C o o k i n g is i m p o r t a n t . Henri p e r m i t t e d n o b o d y but himself to use the galley. Here he is w e d g e d in t o stand r o l l i n g in the steep sea. 0 W e had bad luck in f i s h i n g ( w e said it w a s because of our s p e e d ) . A n y w a y , here's a d e l i c i o u s b o n i t o t o vary t i n n e d f o o d . T i m e d passed very q u i c k l y t h a n k s t o a g o o d library a n d a c h e s s - b o a r d .

A l b i n 21 A thoughtfully equipped f a m i l y y a c h t w i t h "cruiser c o m f o r t " in galley a n d toilet r o o m . 6 . 3 x 2 . 3 m (2^'xT6'), 12 h p petrol e n g i n e , 7 l<;nots. A l b i n 25 The l o n g - d i s t a n c e cruiser for t h e w h o l e f a m i l y . D o u b l e cabins, 4 berths, 7.6x2.6 m (25'4"x8'6"), 2 5 h p e c o n o m i c a l diesel e n g i n e , 8 knots. A l b i n 2 5 d e L u x e is e q u i p p e d w i t h a 36 h p diesel e n g i n e , 11 knots. B o t h types can be fcompleted w i t h rig steadying sails.

Albin Viggen Fast, w e l l e q u i p p e d oceancruiser. " Y a c h t of the year" 1971 in S w e S w e d e n . 4 berths, 7.1 Ox 2.24 m ( 2 3 ' 4 " x 7 ' 4 " ) , 1 4 0 0 l<g ( 1 3 2 3 l b s ) , lOR 2 5 . 3 3 m2 ( 2 7 2 . 6 5 sq f t ) .

Albin Ballad A successful h a l f - t o n cup- cr uiser w i t h c o m f o r t for family cruising. 9 , 1 4 x 2.96 m ( 2 9 ' i r ' x 9 ' 8 " ) , 3 3 0 0 kg ( 7 2 7 6 l b s ) , 10 hp diesel e n g i n e , lOR 4 4 m2 ( 4 7 3 sq f t ) . T w o versions w i t h 5 or 6 berths.

Albin Singoalla R o o m y , exclusive o c e a n cruiser for t h o s e w h o w a n t h o m e - c o m f o r t at sea. 8 berths, 1 0 . 2 6 x 3.30 m ( 3 3 ' 8 " x 1 0 - 1 0 " ) , 4 5 5 0 kg ( 1 0 0 3 0 l b s ) , 25 h p diesel e n g i n e , lOR 55 m2 ( 5 9 2 sq f t ) .

Albin Marine IVIakes Spacious Yachts For Safe Long Cruising. Power Or SalDo
To offer sealoving people a safe a n d c o m f o r t a b l e life o n b o a r d , t o a reasonable cost, t h a t ' s t h e f i l o s o p h y b e h i n d t h e y a c h t secies f r o m A l b i n M a r i n e . This serial has in less t h a n t e n years brought Albin Marine to the biggest y a c h t m a n u f a c t u r e r in S w e d e n a n d o n e of t h e biggest in Europe. For example more t h a n 1800 Vegas are c r u i s i n g o n al the seven seas. As far as w e k n o w no other sailing y a c h t in this size has been p r o d u c e d in so m a n y n u m b e r s . D u r i n g

n Vega The most popular o c e a n cruiser in S w e d e n for f a m i l y cruising or racing in her o w n class. 4 - 5 berths, 8 . 2 5 x 2 . 4 6 m ( 2 7 ' r ' x 8 ' ) , 2 3 0 0 kg ( 2 0 2 0 l b s ) , 10 h p diesel e n g i n e , lOR 31,7 m^ ( 3 4 1 . 2 2 sq f t ) .

the years details c o n t i n o u s l y have been i m p r o v e d a c c o r d i n g of course t o t h e race rules: t h e Vegas are sailing in their o w n class in many countries.

ALBIN IVIARIN AB
322 E 12. 72. H o l m s Grafiska A B Varberg

s-681

01

K r i s t i n e h a m n , S w e d e n . T e l e p h o n e (0550) 156 60. Telex 66 116.