Image this: We’re anchored Swedish-style, bow up in opposition to the rocks, stern anchor pulled tight on the starboard quarter, pine bushes gently rustling within the mild summer season breeze, parked up within the outer Stockholm archipelago. Our 4-year-old son, Axel, is climbing up and down the bow ladder, onto and off of the rocks, on repeat. Mia is in her wetsuit and goggles, swimming laps behind the boat within the 62-degree water, coaching for an open water swim later in the summertime. I’m stress-free within the cockpit, taking all of it in, one eye on Mia and the opposite on Axel, daydreaming concerning the lovely downwind sail we had earlier that day to get right here, Mia and me taking turns driving the boat whereas Axel “made espresso” on the companionway steps.
Now image this: We’re bashing upwind in a steep Baltic chop and 30 knots of breeze, two reefs in the primary plus our No. 3 jib and approach overpowered. The boat leaps off the sq. waves and slams down within the subsequent trough. Three crew are beneath making an attempt to sleep whereas three others, together with myself, are within the cockpit getting pummeled and making an attempt to put a mark some 7 miles to windward, solely 20 miles into the 350-mile Gotland Runt race in horrendous climate.
Each of those scenes passed off on the identical boat and in the identical week, only some days aside, aboard our household boat right here in Sweden. Spica is a Norlin 34 Particular, inbuilt 1977 particularly for the Gotland Runt offshore race. She was drawn by legendary Swedish designer Peter Norlin who I like to consider because the Olin Stephens of Scandinavia. Norlin was well-known for drawing superbly proportional boats. “Rena linjer, ren segling”—clear strains, clear crusing. I’d by no means heard of Norlin earlier than coming to Sweden however stored noticing very fairly boats with a particular N brand on the cove stripe, and lo and behold, they have been all Norlins.
Spica was inbuilt Visby (on the island of Gotland really) within the heyday of the racer-cruiser period and earlier than the IOR rule infamously ruined it with the wide-beam, skinny-stern, squirrely-helmed boats of the later ’70s and ’80s. Again then cruising and racing boats have been much less specialised; you might fortunately do each with out a lot compromise on both. However these have been less complicated instances.
Photograph by Aidan Grey
By fashionable requirements, Spica could be a fairly awful cruising boat and a gradual racing boat. Mia and I can’t rise up inside her. There is no such thing as a swim platform or stall bathe. She received’t stand up on airplane on a quick attain like a equally sized fashionable J/109, and in case you’ve ever seen her bombing downwind below spinnaker you’ll get an actual appreciation for what hull velocity really means while you check out her enormous bow wave.
However get this—we purchased Spica in 2020 for $19,000! We most likely spent that a lot once more on new racing sails, however her engine was new (50 hours on the Yanmar 20-hp after we took possession) and gosh, is she fairly. We occur to reside within the excellent place to take pleasure in small-boat crusing. The truth is, at 34 ft, Spica is fairly massive in comparison with the opposite cruising boats plying the waters across the Stockholm archipelago, so I’ve to watch out speaking with different Swedes about our “small” boat within the 59º North fleet.
Mia and I’ve cruised up and down the coast right here in our yard, and Axel loves the boat—which he calls his boat—swim platform or not. We raced Gotland Runt in 2021 for the primary time, ending seventh in our class, score properly in opposition to far more fashionable boats and nonetheless in a position to be aggressive. This yr the climate obtained the higher of us, and shortly after the scene I described above I pulled the plug and we turned downwind and again in direction of Sandhamn, hitting 11.8 knots for temporary moments browsing down those self same sq. Baltic waves that we’d been bashing in opposition to. And whereas the opposite retired race boats despatched their crews packing, we went cruising as an alternative!
I suppose you possibly can race a contemporary cruising boat, and cruise a contemporary racing boat, however not in the identical approach. The Hallberg-Rassy 34 is the epitome of a small fashionable cruising boat, many individuals’s dream boat right here in Scandinavia, and whereas the specs seem much like Spica, and her Germán Frers hull may even charge higher than the Norlin, she simply wouldn’t look proper on the racecourse. Spica seems to be the half along with her clear strains, flush foredeck, and racing-style cockpit, with all sail controls shut handy. And but she’s not misplaced in cruising mode both, anchored on the rocks with a 4-year-old taking part in on the bow. I’m sorry, however a Farr 40 simply wouldn’t do it for me in that context.
Regardless of our failed Gotland Runt expertise this yr, I’m extra satisfied than ever that Spica is the right mix of quick, thrilling race boat and easy-to-sail, enjoyable household boat. Generally you can have all of it.
October 2024
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