Peter, if you go to the Internal Site Search box at the top of the Members' Area page, and enter 'Swaggie' and then return, you'll get quite a lot of hits.

Arne Kverneland wrote:

Zane Krajancic wrote:

Wait till you see what I came up with for the outboard arrangement - inspired partly by your set up on Ingeborg. Will send you pics when finally I finally splash.

Good, Zane!

I suggest you go for a slightly stouter outboard than my 6hp Tohatsu. Have a closer look at an 8hp Yamaha with a hi-thrust drive. Besides being more powerful, its two cylinders make it run more sweetly.

Good luck!

Arne

I can certainly recommend the Yamaha hi-thrust outboards. The 9.9hp on Footprints has proven very successful. I am not sure if they still do the 8hp which we had previously. The only problem with these yamahas is the weight of them, which if on a bracket on the transom of a 26' yacht would make for a lot of weight out where you do not really want it. And the 8hp is the same weight as the 9.9hp, being just a detuned 9.9. In a well inboard of the transom is the ideal location for an outboard motor on a yacht, but this is not an easy arrangement to retrofit.

Arne Kverneland wrote:

Annie and Zane

I am not sure if I buy this. Although Norway is not a member of EU, we still have an economic deal with them, which means that we must follow many of their directives, including the RCD. Here the RCD means that any new boat which is to be set into production and sold, must be accepted by an ’independent’  (RCD-)board of some sort. The process of getting this approval is quite expensive. However, it is still perfectly legal to build one’s own boat and go sailing in it, but you cannot sell it within five years.

On the other hand, an old boat in good shape, like a Contessa 26, would most certainly be regarded as a great little sea-boat over here. Her Capsize Ratio, CR=1.71, according to Cruising Club of America, which definitely puts her in the offshore-capable category.  Personally, I could hardly think of any boat under 26’, better suited for roaming around in the North Atlantic Ocean. I would have no problems with getting a Co. 26 insured in Norway.

Unless you are now punished  by the law for going offshore in a Co26, I see no reason for selling her. Many of the light, contemporary sailboats with a CE approval on it will punish you in a much more direct way, by jumping around and broaching in a seaway, and generally misbehave and make life miserable for you out there.

Your choice.

Arne

Never fear Arne, I was being sarcastic, or as we say down under "Taking the p**s".  

I wouldn't sell my Contessa for all the tea in China. 

As per David's quote by Joseph Conrad, it will be more about what me, the sailor, can handle when I do finally cast off, whenever that may be.  Got a wee bit of an apprenticeship to do yet my friend, and, actually getting the boat launched will be a good start. Getting there.

Wait till you see what I came up with for the outboard arrangement - inspired partly by your set up on Ingeborg. Will send you pics when finally I finally splash.

Annie and Zane

I am not sure if I buy this. Although Norway is not a member of EU, we still have an economic deal with them, which means that we must follow many of their directives, including the RCD. Here the RCD means that any new boat which is to be set into production and sold, must be accepted by an ’independent’  (RCD-)board of some sort. The process of getting this approval is quite expensive. However, it is still perfectly legal to build one’s own boat and go sailing in it, but you cannot sell it within five years.

On the other hand, an old boat in good shape, like a Contessa 26, would most certainly be regarded as a great little sea-boat over here. Her Capsize Ratio, CR=1.71, according to Cruising Club of America, which definitely puts her in the offshore-capable category.  Personally, I could hardly think of any boat under 26’, better suited for roaming around in the North Atlantic Ocean. I would have no problems with getting a Co. 26 insured in Norway.

Unless you are now punished  by the law for going offshore in a Co26, I see no reason for selling her. Many of the light, contemporary sailboats with a CE approval on it will punish you in a much more direct way, by jumping around and broaching in a seaway, and generally misbehave and make life miserable for you out there.

Your choice.

Arne

Annie Hill wrote:

I think that those buying small boats are being beaten into the ground by the Recreational Craft Directive which, more or less says that any boat under 32ft is unfit to take offshore.  The Contessa 32 barely scrapes by, the Contessa 26 doesn't.  But neither of the Mingmings nor Jester, to take two obvious examples, is considered fit for anything other than coastal work. 

That's it. Selling my Contessa 26. Spent two years and a fair whack of dough doing her up for extended voyaging, and this RCD crowd now reckons she is no good. 

I'll just rot in my cubicle at work for the next 25 years while I dream of saving up the hundreds of thousands of dollars I will never earn in order to be able to buy a "suitable" boat on RCD list.