An Interesting Note From the Other Side of the Atlantic

Below is an interesting email from Tor Melin all the way from Sweden.  It is these kinds of letters that I have recieved that have made this restoration interesting and confirms the decision to put my work online.  Thanks Tor and everyone else that has sent me a note.

Hello Patrick in the USA,

isnt the internet a wonderful thing! I have never heard of You and You have never heard of me, and we will probably never meet.

But by some way I found out about Your work with Your Rasmus when I was looking for information about the Lofrans Royal windlass!

My boat is a Monsun31 nr 113 from 1974. I am shure our boats met in 1974 at the HR wharf on island Henan in the archipelago on the Swedish west coast before they were sold!

I bought her in 2007 from an elderly couple and it is in a pretty good shape. Slowly I am renovating some things but I dont have to do as much as You have to.

I dont like the idea of more cables and batteries and a large electric engine over my sleeping berth. So therefore a manual windlass is on the list. There is the french Goiot, and the old Simpson Lawrence on the second hand market, but I think most sailing sites recommend the Lofrans Royal.

On modern boats the windlass is always in front of the chain box. But on my boat there is no space in front of it. Very depressing.

Therefore I was extremely happy when i found Your pictures and Your solution.

I am really very impressed by Your skills when working on Your boat. I am shure she will be a very functional beauty when You are finished! How can You manage all this work? What kind of professional are You?

You have published fine pics on Your homepage. However I wonder about the anchorchain. The windlass has some kind of hook or "beak" below the chain gypsy. I suppose that it serves to prevent the chain from getting jammed and follow the gypsy around. As You have changed the direction of the chain where it leaves the gypsy, You must have dismouned this hook. Have You tested that it works without this hook?

How do you intend to use the windlass? I met an old german sailor with a L R windlass in a harbour in Denmark. He said that he allways lifted the chain by hand until the last portion with the anchor going up. Only then he laid the chain over the windlass and used its power. He said that it was much superior to electric windlasses he had had before. They were often out of order.

Now something about me.

I am 58 years old. I am a doctor in a university hospital. I am happily married to a wife who loves sailing too! We have two children in student age who booth sail.

I live in Lund, southern Sweden (Google!). My sailing waters are the wonderful small islands of Denmark ( I sail 18 nm west and then I am abroad!!). We also sail to the German Baltic coast to Stralsund, Kiel. When I go northbound we have the magnificent Swedish west coast archipelago and south coast of Norway. This archipelago is considered one of the three best sailing waters in Europe (the others are Greece and Croatia).

Sailing and boating is a very large hobby in Scandinavia. Booth Sweden and Denmark have one boat for every tenth inhabitant! During the summerholidays waters and harbours are really crowded.

A major improvement was when I mounted a windvane servopendulum selfsteering. When we sail without our children its only we two and long hours at the tiller are tiresome. We have an electric steering autopilot too, but it is batteryconsuming and noisy and much inferior in prestanda to the mechanic system.

The choice of a Monsun31 was made by my wife. She likes its weight and sturdy behavior at sea. Monsun and Rasmus are legendary in Sweden and considered as boats the can take You anywhere. Perhaps You know of Kurt Bjorklund who sailed 3,5 global circumnavigations singlehanded with his Monsun. I have his book with the adventures of capsising 200 m up on an shore, dismasting due to roll over etc. And HE WAS 70 YEARS OLD ! There is some writing about him on Hallberg Rassy homepage. His boat is now in museum in Raa, close to where I live.

I am very curious about Your sailing waters. Where is it? Is it the Mexican gulf and Carribean? Do you plan to go bluewatersailing around the world or something? If You plan to sail to Sweden I can give some good advice.

The pictures show:

Denmark: Crowded harbour of Skagen. Copenhagen have channels like Amsterdam so You can moore in the very city center, my daughter at helm. Kronborg castle were Shakespeare imagined Hamlet. The Danish marine cadett ship Denmark, a beauty, and my wife, a beauty. Brynhilde in a small fishing harbour.

Swedish west coast and its rocky archipelago is very picturescue.

Finally You can se the mounting plate I had to manufacture for the correct position over water of the Sailomat 601 selfsteering. Sailomat is manufactured in California by a Swedish engineer. Check its homepage! I bought it second hand 10 yrs old.

I have made a short video on Youtube. Search the word Sailomat and You will find me there. 

By the way I have a small fishing boat also of course. I fish herring in the Sound between Sweden and Denmark. Lots of herring, which my wife prepares in old fashion ways after traditional Swedish recipes.

And I am sorry about Your finger tip, Pat.

Kind regards from

Tor Melin

Lund

Sweden