Henri Bergius - Sailing

Rigging-suspended installation of a marine wind generator

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We cruise on a small boat, a 31ft double-ender. As we’re off-grid the vast majority of the time, all electricity needs to be produced from renewable sources. Solar produces a lion’s share, but other sources are needed for overcast days. We don’t have space for a permanently mounted wind generator, so we converted a Superwind 350 to rigging-suspended.

Why wind?

As our 2024 cruise to the not-so-sunny Scotland demonstrated, there would still be place for wind power in the renewables mix of a long-distance sailboat. My energy production simulations from 2023 also showed a lot of promise for wind power.

Our boat has a canoe stern and dual aft stays, meaning that there is not much space in the back of the boat. We had a conversation with Superwind back in 2022, and they were of the opinion that there simply isn’t a good space for installing one. And so we installed a hydrogenerator and decided that we’d go sailing if we ran out of power.

But the interest in wind generators remained.

And then one day, rowing around the Sainte-Anne anchorage in rainy Martinique, I saw a potential solution: one of the small cruising boats had a wind generator suspended from ropes in their foretriangle. I chatted a bit with the owners, and they confirmed that the system worked nicely. Time for some research!

Rigging-suspended wind generator

Rigging-suspended wind generators used to be common. Commercial models included the Ampair 100, WindBugger, and the Hamilton-Ferris. As solar power has become cheaper, wind generators in general have fallen out of favor. At the same time cruising boats have grown in size, enabling permanent mounting of a big wind turbine.

These effects combined mean that there are currently no commercial manufacturers of rigging-suspended wind generators for boats.

Of the models once manufactured, the Ampair 100 sounded especially promising. It was a modular system that could be used either as a rigging-suspended wind turbine, or as a “tow generator” for making power while under sail.

This modularity is a big advantage of a rigging-suspended wind generator, especially for ease of stowing. They can also be a lot quieter than the pole-mounted ones, as any vibrations are dampened by the suspension ropes. And of course they don’t cause any windage or shading while stowed.

I tried finding an Ampair for sale online with no luck. The second-hand chandlery in Grenada – Treasure Trove – had two units, but couldn’t locate the wind blades.

However, the wind generator market has evolved quite a bit. There are several good wind generators intended for permanent mounting. Superwind and the D400 provide the best alternatives, but are very expensive. On the cheap end, there are numerous Chinese wind generators from companies like Pikasola and Vevor starting at around $250.

Maybe I could design a bracket to convert one of these for rigging-suspended installation?

Building the bracket

Sitting in the windy anchorage at Spanish Water this idea started sounding more and more interesting. After some paper brainstorming, I grabbed FreeCAD and made an initial design.

The design parameters were:

Can be built somewhat cheaply by a local metal fabricator
Can facilitate the most common fixed-mount wind generators
Poles to keep the rigging lines clear of the propellers
Wind generator is held in place and the whole assembly turns into the wind

My original idea was a neat stainless ring around the wind generator body. However, different wind generators are of different height, and so in interests of both manufacturing cost and adaptability, I went with two brackets connected by threaded rod.

It took a couple of months to actually get a quote from a local fabricator, but now we finally have the finished brackets for ourselves and a neighboring boat.

You can find the FreeCAD file on GitHub. There are also STEP files for the top bracket and the bottom bracket.

Installation

Our neighbor installed a 400W Pikasola wind generator on theirs. That mounted on the bracket without any other adapting except for some rubber mat to isolate the stainless parts from the aluminium wind turbine body.

We had bought an old Superwind 350 from another boat, and so for us a small connecting piece (140mm long aluminium pipe with 55mm inner diameter) was needed to make that fit.

The wind generator is hoisted using our spinnaker pole topping lift, with a short strop riding on the inner forestay. Stabilization is with a three rope bridle connected to pad eyes on the deck.

We have wires running from the bottom bracket to the deck level, where they connect via MC4 connectors to to cables running to inside the boat. This way we can easily disconnect the wind turbine as needed. We are adding a stop/run switch soon as well to aid deployment.

Deployment is already documented in our boat handbook.

Conclusion

We only got the Superwind deployed yesterday evening, and so we are gathering the early experiences. However, right now we’re on track to producing about 0.6kWh on the first day. This is measured with a dedicated Victron SmartShunt wired to the wind generator regulator and logging into our time series database.

That 0.6kWh per day is like a whole second solar arch!

Noise levels are not too bad at all. Inside the boat you can’t hear anything. In cockpit, you can hear a slight whirr from the generator, but it is a lot quieter than one of the popular pole-mounted wind turbines on neighboring boat, heard from few hundred meters away.

Durability and handling of heavier winds will remain to be seen. As will the practicality of stowing and deploying when changing anchorages. Though we already do similar things with the mast-hoisted solar panels and the nesting dinghy.

Especially when going with one of the cheap Chinese models, this rigging-suspended method can be the way to add wind power to a boat in an affordable way. We calculated the total price for the Pikasola installation to be around the same as what marine wind generator manufacturers ask for just a mounting pole!

The hardware design should be quite easy to manufacture anywhere where you can find a stainless steel welder. After all, we were able to get ours fabricated on a tropical island.

For us the new wind generator can be seen as completing the circle of our deployable renewable options:

When under sail, power is generated with the hydrogenerator
When anchored in light winds, power is generated with the mast-hoisted FLINsail solar array
When anchored in heavier winds, power is generated by the rigging-suspended Superwind

On top of these we have the fixed solar panels.

Keeping a semi-automatic electronic ship's logbook

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Maintaining a proper ship’s logbook is something that most boats should do, for practical, as well as legal and traditional reasons. The logbook can serve as a record of proper maintenance and operation of the vessel, which is potentially useful when selling the boat or handling an insurance claim. It can be a fun record of journeys made to look back to. And it can be a crucial aid for getting home if the ship’s electronics or GNSS get disrupted.

Like probably most operators of a small boat, on Lille Ø our logbook practices have been quite varying. We’ve been good at recording engine maintenance, as well as keeping the traditional navigation log while offshore. But in the more hectic pace of coastal cruising or daysailing this has often fallen on the wayside. And as such, a lot of the events and history of the boat is unavailable.

To redeem this I’ve developed signalk-logbook, a semi-automatic electronic logbook for vessels running the Signal K marine data server.

This allows logbook entries to be produced both manually and automatically. The can be viewed and edited using any web-capable device on board, meaning that you can write a log entry on your phone, and maybe later analyse and print them on your laptop.

Why Signal K

Signal K is a marine data server that has integrations with almost any relevant marine electronics system. If you have an older NMEA0183 or Seatalk system, Signal K can communicate with it. Same with NMEA2000. If you already have your navigational data on the boat WiFi, Signal K can use and enrich it.

This means that by making the logbook a Signal K plugin, I didn’t have to do any work to make it work with existing boat systems. Signal K even provides a user interface framework.

This means that to make the electronic logbook happen, I only had to produce some plugin JavaScript, and then build a user interface. As I don’t do front-end development that frequently, this gave me a chance to dive into modern React with hooks for the first time. What better to do after being laid off?

Signal K also has very good integration with Influx and Grafana. These can record vessel telemetry in a high resolution. So why bother with a logbook on the side? In my view, a separate logbook is still valuable for storing the comments and observations not available in a marine sensor network. It can also be a lot more durable and archivable than a time series database. On Lille Ø we run both.

User interface

The signalk-logbook comes with a reasonably simple web-based user interface that is integrated in the Signal K administration UI. You can find it in Web apps → Logbook.

The primary view is a timeline. Sort of “Twitter for your boat” kind of view that allows quick browsing of entries on both desktop and mobile.

There is also the more traditional tabular view, best utilized on bigger screens:

While the system can produce a lot of the entries automatically, it is also easy to create manual entries:

These entries can also include weather observations. Those using celestial navigation can also record manual fixes with these entries! Entries can be categorized to separate things like navigational entries from radio or maintenance logs.

If you have the sailsconfiguration plugin installed, you can also log sail changes in a machine-readable format:

Since the log format is machine readable, the map view allows browsing entries spatially:

Electronic vs. paper

The big benefits of an electronic logbook are automation and availability. The logbook can create entries by itself based on what’s happening with the vessel telemetry. You can read and create log entries anywhere on the boat, using the electronic devices you carry with you. Off-vessel backups are also both possible, and quite easy, assuming that the vessel has a reasonably constant Internet connection.

With paper logbooks, the main benefit is that they’re fully independent of the vessel’s electronic system. In case of power failure, you can still see the last recoded position, heading, etc. They are also a lot more durable in the sense that paper logbooks from centuries ago are still fully readable. Though obviously that carries a strong survivorship bias. I would guess the vast majority of logbooks, especially on smaller non-commercial vessels, don’t survive more than a couple of years.

So, how to benefit from the positive aspects of electronic logbooks, while reducing the negatives when compared to paper? Here are some ideas:

Mark your position on a paper chart. Even though most boats navigate with only electronic charts, it is a good idea to have at least a planning chart available on paper. When offshore, plot your hourly or daily position on it. This will produce the navigation aid of last resort if all electronics fail. And marked charts are pretty!
Have an off-vessel backup of your electronic logs. The signalk-logbook uses a very simple plain text format for its entries exactly for this reason. The logs are easy to back up, and can also be utilized without the software itself. This means that with a bit of care your log entries shouls stay readable for many many years to come. On Lille Ø we store them on GitHub
Print your logs. With something like a cheap receipt printer, it would be possible to print your log entries periodically, maybe daily or after each trip. Then you can have an archival copy that doesn’t rely on electronics. Here is a repository implementing just that

API

In addition to providing a web-based user interface, signalk-logbook provides a REST API. This allows software developers to create new integrations with the logbook. For example, these could include:

Automations to generate log entries for some events via node-red or NoFlo
Copying the log entries to a cloud service
Exporting the logs to another format, like GPX or a spreadsheet
Other, maybe non-web-based user interfaces for browsing and creating log entries

Getting started

To utilize this electronic logbook, you need a working installation of Signal K on your boat. The common way to do this is by having a Raspberry Pi powered by the boat’s electrical system and connected to the various on-board instruments.

There are some nice solutions for this:

Sailor Hat for Raspberry Pi allows powering a Raspberry Pi from the boat’s 12V system. It also handles shutdowns in a clean way, protecting the memory card from data corruption
Pican-M both connects a Raspberry Pi to a NMEA2000 bus, and powers it through that

You can of course also do a more custom setup, like we did on our old boat, Curiosity.

For the actual software setup, marinepi-provisioning gives a nice Ansible playbook for getting everything going. Bareboat Necessities is a “Marine OS for Raspberry Pi” that comes with everything included.

If you have a Victron GX device (for example Cerbo GX), you can also install Signal K on that.

Once Signal K is running, just look up signalk-logbook in the Signal K app store. You’ll also want to install the signalk-autostate and sailsconfiguration plugins to enable some of the automations.

Then just restart Signal K, log in, and start logging!

Shakedown cruise on the Baltic Sea

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Just in time for a new cruising season to start, the story of our 2021 Baltic shakedown cruise is now online.

This was a 666NM trip that we did on our new-to-us Amigo 40 cruising boat in August-September 2021. Apart from engine trouble in the beginning, this was a very enjoyable little adventure on the coasts of Sweden and Bornholm.

The trip even earned us the first prize in the cruising log contest of our sailing club:

Read the story now.

Cruising sailboat electronics setup with Signal K

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t mentioned this on the blog earlier, but in the end of 2018 we bought a small cruising sailboat. After some looking, we went with a Van de Stadt designed Oceaan 25, a Dutch pocket cruiser from the early 1980s. S/Y Curiosity is an affordable and comfortable boat for cruising with 2-4 people, but also needed major maintenance work.

The refit has so far included osmosis repair, some fixes to the standing rigging, engine maintenance, and many structural improvements. But this post will focus on the electronics and navigation aspects of the project.

12V power

When we got it, the boat’s electrics setup was quite barebones. There was a small lead-acid battery, charged only when running the outboard. Light control was pretty much all-or-nothing, either we were running inside and navigation lights, or not. Everything was wired with 80s spec components, using energy-inefficient lightbulbs.

Looking at the state of the setup, it was also unclear when the electrics had been used for anything else than starting the engine last time.

Before going further with the electronics setup, all of this would have to be rebuilt. We made a plan, and scheduled two weekends in summer 2019 for rewiring and upgrading the electricity setup of the boat.

First step was to test all existing wiring with a multimeter, and label and document all of it. Surprisingly, there were only couple of bad connections from the main distribution panel to consumers, so for most part we decided to reuse that wiring, but just with a modern terminal block setup.

For most part we used a dymo label printer, with the labels covered with a transparent heat shrink.

We replaced the old main control panel with a modern one with the capability to power different parts of the boat separately, and added some 12V and USB sockets next to it.

All internal lighting was replaced with energy-efficient LEDs, and we added the option of using red lights all through the cabin for preserving night vision. A car charger was added to the system for easier battery charging while in harbour.

Next steps for power

With this, we had a workable lighting and power setup for overnight sailing. But next obvious step will be to increase the range of our boat.

For that, we’re adding a solar panel. We already have most parts for the setup, but are still waiting for the customized NOA mounting hardware to arrive. And of course the current COVID-19 curfews need to lift before we can install it.

Until we have actual data from our Victron MPPT charge controller, I’ve run some simulations using NASA’s insolation data for Berlin on how much the panel ought to increase our cruising range.

The basis for boat navigation is still the combination of a clock, a compass, and a paper chart (as well as a sextant on the open ocean). However, most modern cruising boats utilize some electrical tools to aid the process of running the boat. These typically come in form a chartplotter and a set of sensors to get things like GPS position, speed, and the water depth.

Commercial marine navigation equipment is a bit like computer networking in the 90s - everything is expensive, and you pretty much have to buy the whole kit from a single vendor to make it work. Standards like NMEA 0183 exist, but “embrace and extend” is typical vendor behaviour.

Signal K

Being open source hackerspace people, that was obviously not the way we wanted to do things. Instead of getting locked into an expensive proprietary single-vendor marine instrumentation setup, we decided to roll our own using off-the-shelf IoT components. To serve as the heart of the system, we picked Signal K.

Signal K is first of all a specification on how marine instruments can exchange data. It also has an open source implementation in Node.js. This allows piping in data from all of the relevant marine data buses, as well as setting up custom data providers. Signal K then harmonizes the data, and makes it available both via modern web APIs, and in traditional NMEA formats. This enables instruments like chartplotters also to utilize the Signal K enriched data.

We’re running Signal K on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ powered by the boat battery. With a GPS dongle, this was already enough to give some basic navigation capabilities like charts and anchor watch. We also added a WiFi hotspot with a LTE uplink to the boat.

To make the system robust, installation is automated via Ansible, and easy to reproduce. Our boat GitHub repo also has the needed functionality to run a clone of our boat’s setup on our laptops via Docker, which is great when developing new features.

Signal K has a very active developer community, which has been great for figuring out how the extend the capabilities of our system.

Chartplotter

We’re using regular tablets for navigation. The main chartplotter is a cheap old waterproof Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 8.0 tablet that can show both the Freeboard web-based chartplotter with OpenSeaMap charts, and run the Navionics Boating app to display commercial charts. Navionics is also able to receive some Signal K data over the boat WiFi to show things like AIS targets, and to utilize the boat GPS.

As a backup we have our personal smartphones and tablets.

Inside the cabin we also have an e-ink screen showing the primary statistics relevant to the current boat state.

Environmental sensing

Monitoring air pressure changes is important for dealing with the weather. For this, we added a cheap barometer-temperature-humidity sensor module wired to the Raspberry Pi, driven with the Signal K BME280 plugin. With this we were able to get all of this information from our cabin into Signal K.

However, there was more environmental information we wanted to get. For instance, the outdoor temperature, the humidity in our foul weather gear locker, and the temperature of our icebox. For these we found the Ruuvi tags produced by a Finnish startup. These are small weatherproofed Bluetooth environmental sensors that can run for years with a coin cell battery.

With Ruuvi tags and the Signal K Ruuvi tag plugin we were able to bring a rich set of environmental data from all around the boat into our dashboards.

Anchor watch

Like every cruising boat, we spend quite a lot of nights at anchor. One important safety measure with a shorthanded crew is to run an automated anchor watch. This monitors the boat’s distance to the anchor, and raises an alarm if we start dragging.

For this one, we’re using the Signal K anchor alarm plugin. We added a Bluetooth speaker to get these alarms in an audible way.

To make starting and stopping the anchor watch easier, I utilized a simple Bluetooth remote camera shutter button together with some scripts. This way the person dropping the anchor can also start the anchor watch immediately from the bow.

AIS

Automatic Identification System is a radio protocol used by most bigger vessels to tell others about their course and position. It can be used for collision avoidance. Having an active transponder on a small boat like Curiosity is a bit expensive, but we decided we’d at least want to see commercial traffic in our chartplotter in order to navigate safely.

For this we bought an RTL-SDR USB stick that can tune into the AIS frequency, and with the rtl_ais software, receive and forward all AIS data into Signal K.

This setup is still quite new, so we haven’t been able to test it live yet. But it should allow us to see all nearby bigger ships in our chartplotter in realtime, assuming that we have a good-enough antenna.

Putting it all together

All together this is quite a lot of hardware. To house all of it, we built a custom backing plate with 3D-printed brackets to hold the various components. The whole setup is called Voronoi-1 onboard computer. This is a setup that should be easy to duplicate on any small sailing vessel.

The total cost so far for the full boat navigation setup has been around 600€, which is less than just a commercial chartplotter would cost. And the system we have is both easy to extend, and to fix even on the go. And we get a set of capabilities that would normally require a whole suite of proprietary parts to put together.

We of course have plenty of ideas on what to do next to improve the navigation setup. Here are some projects we’ll likely tackle over the coming year:

Adding a timeseries database and some data visualization
9 degrees of freedom sensor to track the compass course, as well as boat heel
Instrumenting our outboard motor to get RPMs into Signal K and track the engine running time
Wind sensor, either open source or commercial

If you have ideas for suitable components or projects, please get in touch!

Source code

https://github.com/meri-imperiumi/curiosity contains the Ansible Signal K setup for Curiosity, as well as the CNC and 3D printing designs we’re using on the boat
https://github.com/meri-imperiumi/dashboard is the Python script we’re using to drive the e-ink dashboard in our cabin
https://github.com/meri-imperiumi/signalk-autostate is a Signal K plugin for determining the boat state from sensor data
https://github.com/meri-imperiumi/signalk-bluetooth-anchor-button contains the udev scripts for setting anchor watch from the Bluetooth remote camera shutter button
https://github.com/meri-imperiumi/signalk-aws-iot is a Signal K plugin for transmitting our boat state to Amazon Web Services

Huge thanks to both the Signal K and Hackerfleet communities and the Curiosity crew for making all this happen.

Now we just wait for the curfews to lift so that we can get back to sailing!

Sailing across the Atlantic

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Exactly a year ago today we flew from Berlin to Tenerife to depart on a sailing trip across the Atlantic on the Finnish sail training schooner T/S Helena. The Grid had just reached 10.000 founding members, and it was time to charge batteries before the next big push towards the beta.

I had sailed on Helena once before, on a weekend trip in the Turku archipelago. But crossing the Atlantic would be a more interesting adventure. For a month this two-masted tall ship would be our home on the ocean.

Departure

Arriving to the harbour, Helena was easy to find moored next to a Czech “pirate ship”. We registered with the captain and got assigned to the first watch, and then went out for a dinner dinner and some wine with some friends from Berlin who happened to be holidaying on the island.

The next day was busy with provisioning the ship and getting to know the rest of the crew. Every possible nook and cranny would be filled with fruits, fresh produce, water, and other things needed on the long trip.

The ship’s electricity system also needed some repairs, causing delays with the departure. But at the last moment to catch the high tide, on the evening of November 24th, Helena sounded the three long blasts on the foghorn and we were on the way!

Almost immediately after leaving port, we encountered the larger waves of the ocean. This caused some discomfort for many of our students. Our first watch was on kitchen duty, and there were several moments where there was a need to get out of the fumes and out in the fresh air to get one’s bearings.

But human beings being as adaptable as they are, by the next day any signs of seasickness would be gone from pretty much everybody, and the whole group could enjoy the adventure ahead.

T/S Helena

Built in 1992, the steel hulled schooner T/S Helena is the main training ship of the Finnish Sail Training Association. Displacing 110 tons and with length of 38 meters, it is not a small sailboat.

It has a capacity of accommodating 28 crew members and students, as has undertaken many epic adventures on its journey. Cape Horn following the trail of frigate Suomen Joutsen, north to Svalbard, and many many Atlantic crossings.

Inside the ship we’d have cabins for each of the four watches, and a separate area for the professional crew. Also, several restrooms, a shower room, and a kitchen and lounging area.

While the primary means of moving the ship is by sail, it is also outfitted with a powerful engine, as well as an auxiliary power unit for producing electricity and making drinking water.

Life on board

While underway, the life on board of Helena is dominated by the traditional naval watch system, where the crew is divided into four watches, each with their own cabin.

The watch on deck duty handles all the sailing tasks of steering the ship, adding or removing sails, as well as navigation and monitoring the radio and AIS. The watch on standby makes and serves the meals, as well as keeping the ship clean.

When on free watch there is time to sleep, read, and relax on the deck. The cabins are quite a tight fit, and so on the nice warm tropical nights many preferred to sleep inside the sail stash on the deck.

Alongside the normal duties there were lessons on sailing theory, navigation, safety equipment, knots, and other matters. Various students had also been tasked with giving lectures on the islands of Cape Verde and Barbados where we were stopping, as well as on marine life.

The three warm meals of the day were obviously a highlight, with the crews ending up in friendly competition on what kind of epic meals could be made of the supplies. And this being a Finnish institution, on Thursday the lunch is always pea soup and pancakes.

As always, when food is good, everything goes smoother. The last cooking shift of my First Watch ended on a high note, when we prepared rum-marinated swordfish with garlic mashed potatoes.

Along the way provisions would of course dwindle, and once all fresh fruit and bread had been consumed, the kitchen shift would also start to include baking bread.

While the space is tight on the ship, and you’re rubbing elbows with other crew members pretty much everywhere onboard, there are still some places that are more secluded and fitting for relaxation. Especially the bowsprit has proven to be a place where one can focus on meditation and the open ocean.

One thing that I didn’t consider before the trip is how sticky everything would be through the constant presence of sea salt and sweat. The cabins were hot, and since there were issues with the water maker, we had to wash ourselves and do laundry with sea water.

In these conditions we’d often freshen up with a “prison shower” where the whole crew lined up and were washed with the firehose. But a highlight was definitely when while becalmed we were able to stop the ship and go for a swim in the middle of the Atlantic. Only five kilometers deep below…

Night sailing

One of the most memorable parts of the trip were the nights when our watch was on deck duty. Steering the big ship by stars, just like ancient Phoenicians.

Or when somebody else was manning the wheel just enjoying the constant shooting stars of the Geminid meteor shower, the play of moonlight on the sails and the sea, and even an occasional dolphin jumping by the ship, lit with phytoplankton.

The route

Starting from Tenerife, we followed the traditional Age of Sail route along the coast of Africa to the Cape Verde islands, where we stopped for some provisions and recreation in the sleepy town of Mindelo.

After Cape Verde we headed west across the ocean, setting out sights for the island of Barbados.

After some sightseeing and sail repairs, the route continued past the Sail Rock to the Tobago Cays marine park, where we stopped to enjoy a very nice lobster dinner on the beach.

Then the trip continued northwards to St. Lucia, stopping in Marigot Bay for a farewell dinner.

Our final port of call was Le Marin on the French colony of Martinique. So, in a way we did a very long sailing trip to get from Spain to France!

A traditional “crossing of the Atlantic” ceremony was held and then it was time to leave the ship and return to being a pedestrian traveler.

Christmas in the Caribbean

It didn’t feel sensible to fly home directly, and so we decided to spend the Christmas on Martinique. This ended up being a very relaxed few days with nice cheese and wine and a candlelit balcony, as the power went out from the part of the island where we were on.

Since our flights were from St. Lucia, we ended up finding an Australian catamaran that we were able to commission to take us across. After the strict routines of a sail training vessel, it was quite a culture shock to get on a recreational sailboat.

We still got our last glimpse of Helena on the trip by accident. As we were watching the sun set behind the Piton mountains from our hotel balcony in Soufriere, the ship glid majestically across the bay, getting ready to anchor somewhere outside of the marina.

But that was another crew, embarking on an adventure of their own. For us it was time to fly home and prepare for another hectic Grid meetup in Hawaii.

The returning Age of Sail

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It seems that with the rising oil prices the Age of Sail is returning, even if in a modified format. SkySails is a system that enables freighters to tap into high-altitude winds with a power kite to reduce fuel consumption.

Watch the video presentation for more information. Everything old is new again! Via Slashdot.

In sailing-related news, I posted some photos of the 2001 Heimlösa Rus reconstructed viking ship trip from Russia to Finland to Flickr.

Technorati Tags: ecology, kite, oil, sailing

More photo backlog

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Now, this one has been on my TODO list for a while:

Trip to LatinoWare and OpenBeach 2005, and the Nivea Sun sailing race in Brazil

Sown Viking ship's trip report

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Mika Naimark has posted his trip report of the Shnjaka sown ship expedition last summer:

At the same time, the expedition was a good test for our newly built boat in her natural conditions and habitat. If not for this trial, our archaeological experiment would remain inconclusive, leaving the consistency of reconstructed withy-sewing technique under some doubt. So we did not take shortest rout for our voyage, on the contrary, we strived to use all available time up for more sailing. The resulting route was following: Koskosalma - Kuganavolok - [land transport] - Kashino - Povenets - Kizhi - Olen Isles - Petrozavodsk - Povenets - [towed trough Belomor canal] - Belomorsk - Solovki - Sonostrov - Krasnaya bay - Solovki.

Along Onego lake and White sea shnjaka covered some 900 km, under her own sail, moreover, part of this way (200 km) she towed another 8 meter boat. Total sailing time, with anchor hoisted, amounted to ~220 hours, which puts average travelling speed at ~ 4 km/h. Not very impressing, but this result can be stated in more optimistic fashion – our daily average progress was 100 km (4.1km/h * 24h = 100km). Highest speed in this expedition, sustained for some 10 hours, was 6-7 knots, or 11-13km/h.

The trip was definitely an interesting one, and I’m happy to hear they were able to reach the White Sea even after the bureaucratic issues at Stalin’s Channel. Time constraints forced me to leave the ship after the Onega leg.

Journey with a sown ship

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

2005-06-27 17:45Z: Anchored for the night at N61.49,45 E36.06,73. We have made a tent out of the sail and wait on river Vodla for the forecasted SE wind.

2005-06-28 06:25Z: As forecasted, the wind turned in the morning. After a few miles of rowing, we’re finally under sail in a small rain.

2005-06-28 10:45Z: When the headwind died we were able to row out of the river. Now we’ll head slowly into north towards Povenets

2005-06-28 16:55Z: We’ve covered 32km during the evening sailing and plan to continue overnight before wind turns against us. Pos N62,03 S35,38

2005-06-29 06:50Z: The night’s sailing has been succesful, and now when the wind died we float near the north end of Onega.

2005-06-29 12:05Z: During the day the wind died and we’ve been floating and cooking food on Povenets bay 29km from city. Disturbing thunder in the south.

2005-06-29 14:30Z: After rowing out of the rain we caught a brisk north wind carrying us towards the mouth of Stalin’s channel. Position N62.42’ E35.05’

2005-06-29 15:05Z: When a boat of locals came to check us out, our old believer (Staroverts) Feodosi told them we’re tatars sailing north from Astrakhan.

2005-06-29 16:45Z: Povenets in sight. An impregnable wall of dragon-shaped rainclouds speed at us from south and a big fishing boat came to check us out.

2005-06-29 20:00Z: We’re now anchored in Povenets right next to the mouth of the White Sea - Baltic channel (Belomorkanal). Fredrik will camp on the shore. Pos N62.50,10’ E 34.50,07’

2005-06-30 10:10Z: We need to be towed through the Stalin’s channel and arranging that will take some days, so I’ll leave the ship here and head home.

2005-06-30 10:30Z: Before departure we need to get Fredrik’s moped out and the strong north wind prevents us from rowing ashore.

2005-06-30 10:30Z: The trip on Shnjaka has been a very rewarding one. I doubt if similar ships have sailed here since Viking raids a thousand years ago.

2005-06-30 14:25Z: Povenets was the east frontier of the WW2 Great Finland. I’m looking for a ride to Medvezhegorsk, thus ending the Viking adventure.

2005-06-30 21:40Z: The lady at the railway station was most helpful, arranging me tickets in the sold out St. Petersburg train and allowing me to recharge.

See photos from the trip.

Preparing for a Viking Adventure

henri.bergius@iki.fi (Henri Bergius) — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I’m joining the Shnjaka expedition in east Carelia this weekend. Shnjaka is a viking ship built without a single nail using the old sowing techniques.

At the moment the expedition team is somewhere near the town of Pudoszh on the east side of lake Onega, preparing for the ship launch, scheduled monday. I’m traveling with some friends to St. Petersburg and plan to catch a train to Petrozavodsk during the weekend, and then a boat from there to carry me across the lake.

Most of the Shnjaka crew is Russian, but participating in the expedition is also Fredrik Koivusalo, the captain of the Finnish viking ship replica Heimlösa Rus. I participated to the 2001 expedition of the ship from Vyborg, Russia to Loviisa, Finland. The accompanying photo is from that trip.

After the hard work leading to the OpenPSA 2 preview, I’m really happy to get to do something not at all related to computers. While there are still challenges facing me joining the expedition, it should turn out to be a fine adventure.

2005-06-24 05:56Z: We’re leaving for the border soon. Unfortunately the SMS gateway seems to be unable to receive messages so I won’t be able to update this log until it is fixed.

I’ll try to instruct Topi to fix the GW as soon as I get some ideas from Rambo on what is wrong.

2005-06-24 11:35Z: Again the border crossing was a challenge. My friends had visa problems and had to turn back. I’m hitch hiking to Vyborg

2005-06-24 12:50Z: Lunch in Vyborg amid decaying old Finnish art nouveau buildings. Then to the gentle care of Russian state railways

2005-06-24 20:25Z: The Russian nu metal club was steamy enough to warm a beer pint in ten minutes to boiling point. After that, cooling off on Malyi Sadovaya feels pleasant

2005-06-25 08:40Z: The day ended with beer in a park and midsummer fireworks over Neva. Now we’re sitting in Sveta’s bike shop, waiting for my train.

2005-06-25 16:55Z: Syväri. The Murmansk train brings the luxuries of trains like Repin into a new light. Sweating in my small cot I watch Carelia swoop by.

2005-06-25 20:12Z: Saturday night on the beach bulevard of Petrozavodsk looks like Finnish vappu. Air is filled with mosquitoes and smoke from shashlik stalls.

2005-06-26 03:50Z: Sun peeks behind the clouds. I got tickets for KOMETA-11 to Shala. I hope I can buy breakfast from there as here everything is closed.

2005-06-26 04:30Z: This will be the last message in a while, as apparently there is no cell coverage in east of Ääninen. I’ll try to post updates later.

2005-06-26 07:25Z: Arrived to town of Pudozh after bumpy ferry trip and even bumpier bus ride. I’ve now hired a lada to take me to Kuganovolok and the ship.

2005-06-27 10:25Z: We fetched the ship from Lake Vodla National Park in police convoy. It’ll be launched in Kashino and then we’ll set out to Lake Onega.

Continue to the sailing report