Jan 29, 2016 | 2013, Cruising, Destinations |
We cruised the Stockholm Archipelago in 2013 to get some more miles under our belts, in preparation for acquiring our own boat.
Day 6 Utö to Munkö
The sail from Utö to Munkö was gorgeous, thanks to the beautiful weather and to a guide called “Genväger i Stockholms Skärgård” (Shortcuts in the Stockholm Archipelago). It shows you little-known passages as alternatives to the “usual” way of getting somewhere. If you’re in Sweden, and are planning to explore the Stockholm area, I would really recommend it. Even if you don’t speak Swedish, the overhead photos and diagrams will enable you to follow along (you still need the chart, of course).
This chart shows how most people, out of sheer habit, would make this passage:
Utö to Munkö, the “usual” route
This set of charts shows our route.
Utö to Munkö, using the guide “Genväger i Stockholms Skärgård (Shortcuts in the Stockholm Archipelago), first part from Utö, lower left
Utö to Munkö, using the guide “Genväger i Stockholms Skärgård, second part
Utö to Munkö, using the guide “Genväger i Stockholms Skärgård (Shortcuts in the Stockholm Archipelago), last part
About Munkö:
- Beautiful, though relatively small anchorage – room for 12-15 boats to fit comfortably Protected from all winds except those from the north-northeast
- Good holding (mud)
- No facilities at all, but beautiful nature
Our anchorage at Munkö
Dinner at Munkö
Anchorage at Munkö
The beautiful scenery you’ll find on Munkö
Day 7: Munkö to Lökaön
The day dawned with grey skies and a light drizzle. We were so disappointed since yesterday evening showed us clear skies until we turned in for bed. We had hoped the forecast for rain in the morning was wrong.
Today’s plan was to reach Lökaön, a large island with a perfect natural harbour on its eastern side (Österviken). We had a forecast for wind from the northwest, so this anchorage would be perfect.
Lökaö builds together with the islands Storö and Bockö the largest nature reserve in Stockholm’s archipelago.
Our route took us around the eastern side of Sandön and Korsö, around Björkö and then almost directly north to take us to a channel through a group of islands that includes Lökaön. Stockholm’s version of Cowes. Sandön is home to a large marina and village called Sandhamn. It’s Stockholm’s version of Cowes, and is rather lively during the high season between the midsummer holiday at the end of June and the beginning of August. If you’re not the type that enjoys rock concerts and partying young (and not-so-young) people making lots of noise, don’t spend the night here during the high season.
We arrived at Österviken under a double rainbow – the rainy weather was on it’s way out towards the east, and we had a few rays of sunshine as we prepared to anchor in the middle of the harbour.
The well-loved anchorage of Österviken on the island of Lökaö
About Österviken on Lökaö:
- Large natural harbour with room for lots of boats. Excellent places to tie up to land.
- Good holding with sticky mud bottom
- No facilities except an outhouse and a few scattered picnic tables
- Beautiful island to explore if you’re a nature lover
- Be very careful of the underwater rocks shown on the chart. I’ve seen (and heard!) a few boats hit them.
The north side of the island has several popular anchorage spots including Saffransskäret and Lilltistronskäret, but since they are not at all protected, this area is suitable only if the forecast is for no wind, or just a weak southerly.
Day 8 Lökaön to Granhamn
The sun was back and it was a good thing because today we would be picking our way through some of the rockiest parts of the archipelago. We would need to tack our way north as we now had a wind direction of NNE. The channel that leads from just north of Lökaö up through the rocks and skerries to just south of Tjockö is well-marked and easy to follow, but when tacking, you sometimes find yourself just outside the channel. That could easily lead to a grounding as the outer edges of the channel are strewn with underwater rocks.
One of the many Finland ferries in this part of the archipelago
In retrospect, Granhamn wasn’t the best choice of an overnight anchorage. It’s quite small, so when we arrived at around 16.00, it was almost full. We tried setting our anchor, but the bottom doesn’t provide enough holding for the amount of rode we could put out. We ended up squeezing into a space to moor to land (the Swedish tradition of mooring to trees or spikes set into the rocks together with a stern anchor). We had just enough clearance under our keel (the Bavaria 40 has 2.2 meters of draught) for the space that was available between another boat and a shallow beach.
The anchorage of Granhamn
Granhamn is a traditional jump-off point for the passage to the Åland islands. In the evening, you’ll see that big ferries to Finland and Åland steam by. It’s an amazing sight, as the ferries are like small glittering cities passing by your quiet anchorage.
Day 9 Granhamn to Sandhamn
We saved the visit to Sandhamn for almost last as we wanted to get there late in the season. We are not big fans of noise and competing sources of music in the marina. As it was after the 15th of August,and mid-week, a “low season” atmosphere reigned over the marina.
Another marina across the fairway from Sandhamn called Lökholmen is much quieter and provides a boat shuttle over to Sandhamn.
We arrived just in time to have a look at the summer pop-up shops, grab some groceries at Westerbergs and visit the charming little bakery. Later that evening, we had dinner of cold-smoked shrimp in the Seglarhotellet (Sailors Hotel), which has a lovely second-storey view over the marina.
Sandhamn, Stockholm’s summer sailing centre. During the high season in July until mid-August, this area would be full of boats
Day 10 Sandhamn to Träskö Storö
Tonight would be our last night in the archipelago, so I wanted to choose one of my favourites. The choice fell to Träskö Storö. It’s a large natural harbour protected from just about all winds except for north in some parts.
Since most of the good places to moor to land were already crowded, we decided to anchor out again. We settled in the cockpit for a glass of wine and a book on our iPads as the sun slowly started it’s downward trajectory.
At anchor, Träskö Storö
Enjoying the sunny evening at Träskö Storö
An hour later we noticed a very slight sound of vibration. We checked to see if our halyards were perhaps too loose and were flapping with the little bit of wind we had. No. We checked to see if we were moving by taking a fix on a couple of distant rock formations. After 15 minutes, we were still in the same place according to the fixes. Then we thought maybe the flapping of the towels we had hung on the lifelines were causing the sound.
Sunset at about 22.00
Sunset at about 22.30
We had dinner, took the fixes again and got the same degrees as before. We went to bed at around 22.30, but I woke up every hour to look out the porthole to see if we had moved.
At about 3.30, I did notice that we were much closer to one of the little islands in the harbour and shouted to Jacques that we had dragged anchor and had to move the boat. Thankfully, there’s not much darkness in August at this latitude, so the sun had already been climbing for awhile. We weighed anchor and looked for another place. This time we backed down at 2,200 rpm instead of the 2,000 we usually do. The anchor held and now there was no wind at all. We were confident that the little Bruce anchor would hold.
Now we know what that strange vibrating sound means! Fortunately, no harm done.
Day 11 Träskö Storö to Lidingö
Holidays can’t last forever, and the final day of our cruise arrived. We slept a bit later than usual, waking up at around 10 o’clock instead of the usual 7.00 or 8.00 because of our anchor “adventure”.
After a last wonderful breakfast at anchor, we left for Lidingö, taking the long (eastern) way around the Saxarfjärden (“Scissor Fairway” in english). We wanted to stay out as long as possible because of the fine weather.
Träskö Kvarn (windmill)
We filled the diesel tank at Waxholm, which has a choice of two fuel stations and a marina. The marina itself is just in front of the main street. You’ll find boutiques, art galleries, cafés and restaurants as well as grocery stores, a pharmacy and one of the state-run wine/beer/liquor shops called “Systembolaget”.
From there it is a short hop to Lidingö’s Gåshaga marina. We arrived at around 17.00 and went through the usual inspection procedure when chartering. After dinner at the restaurant at the marina, we enjoyed our final night on the boat.
Jan 20, 2016 | 2013, Cruising, Destinations |
It was now August 2013, and we were in the midst of deciding which boat we were going decide upon. We thought a bit sailing in familiar waters would help us in the decision process.
It had been a long time since we last cruised the Stockholm Archipelago — June, 1996 to be exact. We bareboat charted a Bavaria 40 from Sail Sweden, based in Gåshaga on Lidingö, a short distance from Stockholm. Lidingö is the island on which I lived back in the late 80’s to early 90’s.
We first stopped at the Östermalmshallen (a wonderful food market in Stockholm) to buy some Skagenröra (Danish/Swedish shrimp salad) and Kräftröra (crayfish salad) at Lisa Elmqvist and a few other items such as Västerbotten (the tastiest Swedish cheese) at Husmans Deli. If you’re in Stockholm, you must go to Östermalmshallen! Click here for an image of this treasure from the 1800’s.
The second stop was the ICA supermarket in Larsberg, which has an amazing selection of high-quality food, including a great selection of organics. This was the supermarket I used to go to back in the 80’s and it was not at all like this!
We finally arrived at the marina and were welcomed onto the boat and given time to organise our shopping and our baggage. We then went through the functional, safety and security aspects of the boat with one of the owners of the charter company. When you charter a boat, it’s important to ask where all of the safety and security items are stored – sometimes it’s not the most logical area! It’s also a good idea to ask how the VHF works if you’re not familiar with the brand that’s installed on the boat.
By the time all of the preliminaries were dealt with, it was around six-thirty. We were exhausted, having driven up from Helsingborg the same morning (about a 6-hour drive), so we thought it best to get some rest and start early tomorrow.
Day 1: Lidingö to Paradiset
The day dawned a bit grey and misty, a disappointment after yesterday’s fabulous sunshine, but we left our mooring with a strong sense of excitement, eager to rediscover this fantastic sailing area. Tillbaks i skärgården! Back in the archipelago!
The Stockholm archipelago has over 30,000 islands and many more rocks and shoals making it a difficult place to navigate, if you’re not accustomed to always checking your chart. Fortunately, there are no tides, so the depth of these rocks doesn’t change in a dramatic way. The water level does rise and fall with weather conditions, though, so be careful with strong high or low pressure conditions. A high pressure system will push the water level down and out of the Baltic via Denmark, and a low will allow more water to flow into the Baltic, raising the water levels. I’ve seen differences of around almost a meter.
Our route to paradiset
Our route took us past Waxholm, with its 16th century fortress, through Lindalsundet, past Grinda island, and finally to the well-known anchorage of Paradiset. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon with a glass of our own Chardonnay on the low granite cliffs in front of the boat.
Enjoying a glass of our own wine, a chardonnay from Domaine de la Roselle, at Paradiset.
The perfect anchorage on a perfect day.
Paradiset in the Stockholm Archipelago
Our neighbours at Paradiset
About Paradiset :
- Good points: large, room for lots of boats, good holding, not far from Stockholm (less than a day’s sailing)
- Bad points: Could be overcrowded and loud during the high season and weekends as it’s popular for families with small children.
Day 2: Paradiset to Gräddö
We ended up on Gräddö because of a genoa failure. We had intended to sail farther north to Arholma, when suddenly, the leading edge (luff) of the genoa ripped off the rest of sail. We were running with about 15 knots of wind – not exactly storm conditions.
We called the charter company, and they arranged for a sailmaker to be standing by when we returned to repair the sail. We had an early dinner and bedtime at Gräddö because it would take us nearly the entire day to get back to Lidingö.
At Gräddö marina
About Gräddö Marina:
- Good points: Calm, quiet, well protected for all but north winds. Fuel dock, showers, sauna, toilets and laundry room. There’s a grocery store about 500 meters away.
- Bad points: Small, may not be suitable for boats of over 45-50 feet, as the mooring buoys are probably not far enough away from the dock.
Day 4: Lidingö to Napoleanviken (Agnö)
After having spend our entire third day, getting back to Lidingö, and half of our fourth day getting the sail repaired, we finally got under way at about 15.00. I decided that Napoleanviken on the nature reserve island of Ägnö would be a good goal for the day. It’s a favourite Friday night anchorage since it’s not far from Stockholm, it’s gorgeous, it’s quiet, and it has lots of room so you can find a place to anchor even if you arrive in the evening.
To get there, you need to pass through three different canals, the Skurusund, the Lännerstasund and the Baggenstäk. It’s an interesting voyage with lots of fabulous houses lining the banks of the canals.
Motoring through the Skurusund
The first two canals are “normal-sized” — most traffic can pass side by side with lots of room to spare. The third, however, is really narrow.
If you meet one of the archipelago passenger boats (boats that act as public transport for the island and coastal population) in one of the skinnier parts of the Baggenstäk, you may just have to back up to let them through. You are required to go through the Skurusund and the Baggenstäk under motor if you have one.
This is the entrance when entering from the Stockholm side of the Baggenstäk canal. It’s quite narrow, and you don’t see what’s coming around the bend.
Before going through the Baggenstäk, keep your ears open to channel 16. Most of the bigger boats will warn other traffic they will be entering so you can take action to wait them out. They will also sound a warning before entering – one long whistle. Don’t forget that passenger boats in regular traffic have priority over leisure boats.
One of the narrowest places in the “Baggenstäket” canal.
One of the many charming homes you see along the canal.
Day 5: Napoleonviken to Utö
The sunny weather continued, and we had a leisurely breakfast in the cockpit with a pretty flock of ducks floating around the boat. They know to stay close if they want something to eat. We observed them paddling from boat to boat asking for donations.
Company at breakfast time in the Napoleonviken.
Having a leisurely breakfast in the beautiful anchorage of Napoleanviken on Ägnö.
Today’s plan was to sail to Utö, one of our favourite islands. Our route would take us past Dalarö and the Dalarö fortress.
The fortress at Dalarö, called Dalaröskans.
The village of Dalarö is worth a stop – at least for a couple of hours. The small shops and cafés are wonderful. We highly recommend the Bistro Solsidan. In 1996, we were forced to spend three days here during a force 9 gale, and we were lucky it was here and not somewhere boring.
View of Dalarö in the southern Stockholm Archipelago.
Utö has the advantage of being on the outer edge of the archipelago. It’s name means “out island”. The inland side, where the marina is located, is protected from the offshore winds and waves. The outer side gives you a fantastic view of the open Baltic sea. Perfect for a picnic, a swim or just a glass of wine on the cliffs.
Beautiful cliffs facing the open Baltic Sea on Utö. You can see the evidence of my sprained knee in this photo.
The island was a used back in the day as a iron mine. From the 1100’s until the end of the 1800’s, iron mining was the main activity of the island. At the beginning of the 1900’s people started using the island as a summer holiday resort. A glamorous restaurant and hotel, the Utö Wärdshus, was built towards the end of the 1800s and attracted the celebrities of Stockholm. It’s still open today.
You can still see the vestiges of the iron mines. They’ve been filled with water, but you can still see where they are if you follow the signs that say “gruva”.
The area around Utö marina hosts several restaurants, cafés and bar as well as a fantastic bakery. There’s a well-stocked grocery store and a few boutiques that sell clothing, artisan-made home/boat ware, fresh seafood and souvenirs. You can also rent bikes and kayaks to explore the island.
Utö Marina. The old windmill dates from the 1700’s and serves as a handy navigation mark. It’s open for visits.
About Utö marina:
- Prices: 225 SEK for a day (between 15.00 to 13.00) Includes Sauna, showers, toilets.
- Electricity (220 V, EU connection): 65 SEK
- Free Wifi
- Fuel station
- The maximum depth is 3 meters, but boats with more than 2.2 meters draft need to reserve a berth with the marina office at 08-501 574 50.
- Other facilities: laundry, kiosk for magazines, ice cream, coffee and snacks. Grocery store, bakery and other shops nearby.
Jan 10, 2016 | 2013, Getting started |
Is this our future boat? We arrived at the Discovery yard full of anticipation, like children visiting Disneyworld for the first time. I had a feeling in my heart that this was to be “the boat”. But we wanted to have that feeling in our brains as well as our hearts – that the emotional side would agree with the logical, analytical side. Sometimes, as you know, these two sides don’t always agree.
We were greeted on Monday morning by Mark Williams, Discovery’s sales director, and were ushered into the conference room. After tea and shortbread (so English!), we were taken to see the yachts in build. There were two 57s and two 55s.
Early stages of construction in a Discovery 57
Seeing boats in their various stages of build enabled us to see the quality of materials used underneath the floors and behind the bulkheads and ceilings, something you don’t see in photos or at boat shows. Since Discoveries are constructed with the hull in an open state (the deck and cabin top are attached later in the build) we were really able to see everything. It was both fascinating and enlightening – something I’d never seen before, as my previous boats were bought as “previously owned”.
The woodworking area at Discovery. In the foreground, you see a few lockers, a settee and walls ready for the varnishing chamber.
Finally, we stepped onto a 55. It was almost at the end of it’s build process. What an elegant and above all, solid-looking boat! Sitting the deep centre cockpit, I thought, “this is a boat that makes you feel safe.” It was then I noticed the hot tub that we saw in the Discovery video. Yes, folks, there is a hot tub in the cockpit.
Jacques standing in the hot tub
For anyone who sails in the colder parts of the world, this is a serious plus. For us, Discovery racked up some serious bonus points with the hot tub. We imagined ourselves being in an anchorage in Norway in early spring, snow-blended rain coming down and sitting in our warm hot tub, glögg (nordic hot-mulled wine) in hand.
Here you see the hot, cold and salt water faucets for the hot tub
John and Caroline Charnley, the founders of Discovery and owners of hull number one, come up with this genius idea. It was simple. The helming position had been designed as a separate area from the rest of the cockpit, so it was just a matter of installing hot and cold water faucets to pour water into the area.
The companionway has only three wide and comfortable stairs to get into the saloon area. This was important as we have two large dogs. Too large to carry up and down the stairs. These stairs they could handle!
The nav station was just amazing with it’s 270° view. The nav station to us was always “sea sickness central” as it’s normally located deep down in the darkest part of the boat, with no view of what’s going on outside. The dinette also provides a 270° view. I started to daydream about being anchored up in a lovely anchorage in Sweden, reading a book or having a meal or drinks, and observing the beauty outside. We noticed that the windows in front open up to let a breeze through.
Jacques testing out the nav station
We were impressed with the galley. It had as many linear centimetres as our kitchen at home. The fridge and freezer had more capacity than ours at home. It also had one of those famous GN Espace 4-burner ovens. We had read about them in Yachting Monthly’s test of marine cookers, in which GN Espace won “Best on Test”.
To make a long story short, we were enchanted with the boat. Next, we sat down with all of our questions about the build process and materials used. And finally, we talked about an offer.
To our surprise, the boat came with a lot of standard items that are usually options on other boats, for example:
- Electric primary and control line winches
- Electric in-mast furling
- Solent rig or cutter rig with furling headsails
- Bow thruster
- Kevlar reinforced hull
- Folding Gori propeller
- 40 kg Delta anchor and 60 m of chain
- Bosch washer/dryer
- 7kW Victron generator
- Raymarine autopilot
- Raymarine chart-plotter
- Raymarine 4 kW radar
- 2 electric fresh-water toilets
- Eberspacher central heating
- Water-resistant leather seating for all seating
- 3 kW inverter/charger
- Pocket-sprung owners’ mattress
- Microwave oven
- Stereo systems with speakers inside and out
- Heavy-duty Sonnenschein deep-cycle batteries
- Victron Isolation transformer
- GN Espace 4-burner stove with oven
- Extractor fan over stove
- Lee cloths for all berths including in between the double berths
- Flush Lewmar hatches including mosquito and sun screens
- Icom VHF with DSC and masthead antenna
This was really great news because we knew just how much all of these items (or similar items) on this list cost. With one or two exceptions, they were all on the options list for the 3 other boats for which we had offers.
Here’s a list of the options we wanted and why at the outset:
- Extra hanging locker instead of desk/vanity in the owners’ cabin (closet space is always welcome, but a vanity?? I can fix my face in the heads, thank you, and we can use the navigation or dining table as a desk.)
- 55 kg Spade anchor and 100 meters of chain instead of the 40 kg Delta/60 meters (following the advice of John Harries on the excellent Attainable Adventure Cruising website, who wrote “two anchors don’t increase holding, holding is linear and heavier anchors set better.”)
- Hot tub plumbing (of course!)
- Full height pantry with sliding baskets instead of the wet locker (you always need lots of space for storing food).
- Fans in each cabin for ventilation
- Settee (sofa) instead of the standard pilot berth on starboard side (provides more floor space for the dogs and a place to sit down to put on your boots).
- Retaining catches on floor hatches (safety feature in case of capsize — see this video from Yachting Monthly magazine about what happens when you roll over.
- Bimini with full enclosure (a tent for the cockpit, something you see often in the colder climates so you can enjoy your cockpit when it rains or when it’s cold).
- Reckmann electric furlers (customer feedback and maintenance records at Discovery had shown they work pretty much flawlessly while the Furlex ones didn’t)
- Hydraulic boom vang (makes the topping lift superfluous – which means we’d have a “crane” to lift things from the water, such as the inflatable kayak we’ve been eying).
- Spinnaker halyard (this also serves as a “crane” for lifting things or a MOB from the water)
- Two additional mooring cleats aft and forward, giving us a total of 12 mooring cleats (would give us lots of margin for the “each line should have it’s own cleat” rule)
- Ribeye RIB and outboard (will be our Smart car whilst at anchor. This is a good model for people with dogs as the floor is flat and the dogs will be able to lie down.)
- Grey water tank (to fit in with new rules on water pollution/ecology in the Baltic Sea).
- Shoal keel draft of only 1.8 metres/5.9 feet (a shallow draft makes the Baltic Sea archipelago areas more accessible and it’s essential for some of my favourite anchorages in the Stockholm and St. Anna archipelagos in Sweden) instead of the standard 2.3 metres
This was the basis for the offer we requested from Discovery.
The last part of our day was a visit to Ocean Village Marina in downtown Southampton to see a 57 that was already in the water. We turned down an offer to test sail her. We thought that the 55 was so different from the 57, it wasn’t worth the extra day it would take.
Mike Golding’s Open 60 “Gamesa” at Ocean Village Marina. He finished in 6th place in the Vendée Globe race (88 days, 6 hours).
The huge, twin-helm centre cockpit of the Discovery 57 – it felt much too big for us.
We had a chance to speak with John Charnley, the founder of Discovery Yachts. He was at Ocean Village getting his Discovery 50 catamaran ready for it’s next owner. We got an excellent impression of John. He seemed to be the quintessential British gentleman: soft-spoken, articulate and pleasant.
We now had a short list of three boats to consider. It was July, 2013 and we would have to make a final decision by October or November. We also had our appointment to visit the Hallberg Rassy yard at the end of August coming up.
“Dreaming about our future boat” was about to become “planning our future boat”.
Jan 7, 2016 | 2013, Getting started |
It was now 2013, and our search for the perfect cruising sailboat, our “dream boat”, continued. We visited Düsseldorf again in January, mostly because Hallberg-Rassy had suddenly replaced the 54 with a brand-new 55. We had to see it and compare the old 54 with the new 55. We also wanted to check out a Solaris, as one of our “classmates” from the offshore theory course had just bought a Solaris 48 which he keeps in Genoa, Italy, and he absolutely raved about it.
We were well-received at the Solaris stand, and they are indeed beautifully-crafted boats. But we could tell right away that we were not going to buy one. A Solaris is a great Mediterranean or perhaps Caribbean cruising yacht, but the boat and especially the huge aft cockpit did not install a feeling of security in our minds. We intend to start our cruising life in Scandinavia and northern Europe and then perhaps Iceland, Greenland and Canada – places where the water temperature rarely rises above 18°C – places where you want to stay put on the boat. The wide and roomy saloon did not offer much in terms of handholds and bracing needed if going through a rough sea, but it did provide great entertainment space for a Mediterranean-style dinner party.
So on we went to our appointment at the Hallberg-Rassy stand.
The new H-R 55 was not very different from the 54. The greatest difference was the addition of two port lights on each side of the hull in the saloon area. The upside was more light in the saloon and a tiny bit of view. The downside was that it took away quite a bit of storage (removal of cupboards on each side of the saloon). We weren’t sure if the change was a good thing. Storage is, after all, something you never have enough of on a boat.
We discussed what options we wanted/needed, such as the double bed configuration in the owner’s cabin instead of the standard twin beds separated by a little seat in the middle. There were four or five pages of options to go through. Dishwasher? No. Washing machine? Yes. Microwave? Yes. Television? No. Double bed instead of the standard bunk beds? No. Shoal keel? Yes. And so on… An hour later, we felt we were almost ready to order the boat! We left the H-R booth with an appointment to visit the yard at the end of August in conjunction with the Open Yard boat show there.
One of the absolute highlights of the 2013 Düsseldorf show was meeting someone who was to become a friend, coach and a big influence on the construction of our boat, Freja. This person was Leon Schultz.
Leon onboard his Hallberg-Rassy 46 “Regina Laska”
Leon was in Düsseldorf to promote his book The Missing Centimetre (recently re-named to Sabbatical at Sea), which I had bought and read a few months earlier. We met standing in a cash register queue! I immediately recognised him from all of the photos in the book and we had a short but lively conversation about life after quitting everything to go cruising. He proved to be just as kind, open and insightful as he seemed to be in the book.
Leon found it impossible to go back to the “office life” after his one-year cruising sabbatical, and was at this point (early 2013) providing cruising/sailing training on his new boat, Regina Laska, a Hallberg-Rassy 46. We thought it would be a good idea to do some sailing with a private coach, so we took his business card, fully intending to get in touch in a year or so.
We left Düsseldorf with the H-R 55 in our sights. We received an offer, detailing all the options we discussed, a couple of weeks after the show. But after seeing what Leon had done with Regina Laska (a total refit of an older boat), we started to entertain thoughts of doing the same. What about buying an older boat, at a much lower price, and then refitting it to suit our requirements? Were we getting analysis paralysis, or were we being wise in considering all possible options?
It was only February of 2013, and our goal was to have a boat in the spring of 2016, so we weren’t quite worried about making our final decision yet. Plenty of time to get through our analysis paralysis.
Fast forward to June 2013…
On a sunny day in June, I stumbled upon the yacht builders page on sailnet.com. Just for fun, I paged down just to see if there was a builder I didn’t know about yet. We had decided to go through with ordering the H-R 55 in August during the Open Yard boat show in Ellös, but why not? I had finished a big task for work, and felt entitled to disappear down a rabbit hole for 15 minutes while I drank my coffee.
“Discovery Yachts”. Well, this was one I’d never heard of! Click.
Oh holy crap!
Wow!
Houston, we have a problem.
I waited for Jacques to return home for lunch, and showed him the photos and then the video (since taken down as it is of the “Mark I” rather than the “Mark II”) of the Discovery 55. Same reaction. Suddenly, our well thought-out plans were turned upside down.
The lightening bolt effect had happened yet again.
I knew in my heart after seeing the photos and the video, that this was “the one”. I sent for the brochures and I phoned the sales manager directly after lunch to set up a visit to the yard in Southampton. A few days later we received a packet in the mail with brochures, reprints of press articles and photos of the Ron Holland-designed Discovery 55. We had 10 days to go through everything before heading up to Southampton to visit the yard.
This was the info pack that Discovery Yachts sent us in anticipation of our visit.
