mast – Voilier 'HIR 3'

Gone Sailing… Finally!

On our first sailing trip from Kraljevica to Kornati and back to Poreč, we covered about 350 miles… and our adventure is only beginning! If you would like to join us, please contact me…

19/07/2016 sasa1 Comment

HIR has been in Kraljevica Shipyard on dry berth for almost three months now… I am a patient man, but even I became nervous and was thinking if I would ever set sail…. but then, finally… After we’ve put new antifouling, engine was fixed, mast step and all shrouds and lifelines were replaced, we painted the mast, put the new windex on top, roll system was serviced, new halyards were in place and mast was stepped and trimmed properly… we were ready to sail away:)!

There is still a lot of work to be done, but housing sails and first sailing on board HIR 3 after more than two years of refit deserved a proper champagne and whiskey that I opened after I’ve put a coin under the mast…

Gone sailing… finally! What a great feeling! 🙂

On our first sailing trip from Kraljevica to Kornati and back to Poreč, we covered about 350 miles… and our adventure is only beginning! If you would like to join us, please just fill out this form: http://goo.gl/forms/CTH1fivtGpAG2pPt1

Full speed astern!

18/05/2016 sasaLeave a comment

Weather finally decided to cooperate and allowed us to move HIR from Poreč, so Andrej, Elvis and me bought food, drinks and started the engine… Finally we were on our way!

I decided not to experiment with the sails until we repair the mast, so we motored through the calm sea by the Istrian coast. It wasn’t very exciting, bit on the other hand we were really happy to be on our way, so we treated ourselves with good food and great Istrian wind we brought. In the evening, we had dinner that Andrej prepared the day earlier in the cockpit… We installed a headlamp on the tiller, so we would be able to see what we were eating and it turned out to be great!:)

Occasionally the alarm sounded because the engine started to overheat, so we decided to take it slow. It was really easy to navigate at night with very little traffic. We took 2-hour shifts, so we got to sleep a little… until early in the morning when I woke up, I noticed something strange… The engine was running, but we weren’t moving! I tried to go in reverse and it worked ok, but we just couldn’t go forward!? Anyway, it was only logical to go full speed astern! We were doing sometimes over 3 knots this way for 15 miles… until we reached the shipyard in Kraljevica… We felt really stupid, but it worked out fine in the end. We reached our destination!

Guys immediately took down the mast and I decided to take the boat out as well to repair the engine and to do the antifouling…

Good old boat

HIR 3 is definitely a good old boat. She was build to last and she proved bulletproof too:)

17/09/2014 sasa1 Comment

Back in the day, boats were built to last and the main requirement was that she had to be seaworthy. Now, most shipyards (with few exceptions, of course) build boats that have to be cheap, light, fast, pretty and have accommodation for a lot of people. Build quality and seaworthiness unfortunately belong to the past and are now synonyms for good old boats.

HIR 3 is definitely a good old boat 🙂 The hull is made of thick solid laminate that shows no signs of osmosis, has a lead keel connected to the hull with twelve stainless steel plates and a full skeg to protect the rudder. She has an oversized 15-meter keel stepped mast with backstay, running backstays, baby stay and double spreaders that end up on a stainless steel plate on two bulkheads connected to a 2.5 ton keel made of lead with added antimony for stiffness. There are eight oversized winches (on a 34 foot boat!), two large travelers on each side for the genoa and one on the coachroof for the mainsail. All the bulkheads and main frames in the interior as well as her tiller are made of solid teak. In the galley and in the salon there are boxes for plates, glasses, cups and bottles, and one special for a bottle of Jack Daniels:)

She was build to last and she proved bulletproof too:)

Coin under the mast

Sailors and shipwrights have been putting coins under masts of ships since the ancient times. We found an interesting one on HIR 3!!!

29/05/2014 sasa1 Comment

I was cleaning the bilges with a sponge which was a really dirty job, but someone had to do it. Water was brown, it wasn’t pleasant and it seemed like it would never end with the water coming from all over the place. There was a lot of small rotten plywood parts inside the bilges, but I came across a round object that seemed a bit different, so I stopped and had a quick look. It seemed like a coin, but it was covered in dirt and I couldn’t really see what it was. I showed it to Maja. She immediately went to the pontoon to clean it so we could se what it was…

It was really cool to see a coin which actually turned out to be a medal from 1981. Adriatic Regatta for 2nd place in category IV!

‘Sailors and shipwrights have been putting coins under masts of ships since the ancient times. The ceremonial practice is believed to originate from ancient Rome. One theory is that, due to the dangers of early sea travel, the coins were placed under the mast so the crew would be able to cross to the afterlife if the ship were sunk. The Romans believed it was necessary for a person to take coins with them to pay Charon, in order to cross the river Styx to the afterlife and as a result of this, coins were placed in the mouths of the dead before they were buried. Another theory for this practice is that the insertion of coins in buildings and ships may have functioned as a form of sacrifice thanking the gods for a successful construction, or a request for divine protection in the future (Wikipedia)’.

Now I know what I have to do with the medal. I will keep it safe until we put the boat in better shape… and than we will organize a ceremony to put the it in place under the mast. I can’t wait! 🙂

I showed the medal to my friends at Dobro More sailing club in Zagreb and my friend Jelena offered to clean the medal with a special acid for bronze… she brought it a week later looking like this… Great!! 🙂 Thanks a lot Jelena!!