Valmik's Adventures: She sails

Summary

Early in 2008 I bought a little, old wooden Folkboat called Valmik. I was going to spend a few months on repairs and begin sailing her around Europe, with Australia being the final destination. As my knowledge of boats improved, so did the thoroughness of the restoration. I decided to become very involved in every aspect of construction, doing almost all of the work myself: making my own sails, doing the fit out and all woodwork, splicing my own rig and wiring in the 12 volt electric circuit. Self-reliance, I suppose, is the goal. Follow the link to my photo albums for a detailed documentation of the work and some videos.

For a long time now, I have been striving to achieve my goals and begin an adventure. I had planned to complete a circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland in the summer of 2015 with my wife. Unfortunately, this will not be possible and I went back to work. Valmik is ready to sail, however, and I am finally in a position to start enjoying her for what she was designed for. Of course there is a never ending list of modifications and enhancements with a small section for repairs. I will be sailing as much as possible and documenting my adventures on this blog.

My plan is to build up to a epic solo sailing Adventure.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

She sails

Yes this is Valmik finally sailing with full main and Genoa. It felt sooo amazing to finally have Valmik sailing after all this time. It was such a joy. This pic above was the third time that I,ve taken her out, the other two times were with jib only.

We were rowing and sculling against the tide with a slight head wind here, it was hard but enjoyable. We could probably do this for a few hours, but with more wind or tide we would be going backwards. I have no engine and am not to keen on getting one. I love the space where the engine was.

Well my plans have all changed once again, I have learnt that these sorts of things should not be rushed, especially since my life will be depending on this little boat.

Most of the big jobs took as long as I thought they would to do. It is all of those little ones that you don't think of, or that take a little longer longer than you thought, which draw the whole process out. But the planks have "taken up" nicely, there is still a little water coming in but not a lot. I still need to do a little bit of a refit and some work on the rig.