Leon's Page
Born in Sweden, brought up in Germany, having lived in Switzerland and with a mother in Spain and sister in Brussels, I am happy to have met an equally international wife, with her brother in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, and further relatives in England and Denmark.
My heart, however, has always beaten for the West Coast of Sweden, where, as a kid, we spent all our summers, driving up from Germany with a small power boat towing behind.

The sea has ever since been the centre of my life unifying the world.

As a boy-child, I made my first experiences on sea investigating the Swedish archipelago by motor boat.

15 years of age, after having spent two weeks onboard my uncle’s 27’ Vega No 7, my life changed. Sailing became my passion and it is my uncle to be blamed for us longing for evermore sailing.
Returning from the holiday onboard the Vega exploring the Baltic Sea to Gotland and back to Stockholm, I sold my (inherited) ancient model railway and bought my first own sailing boat: A Laser dingy, I actually still have.


I conquered the “open oceans” with RATATOSK sailing on my parents little bay in Bohuslän on the west coast of Sweden

I was sailing on my own vessel!
With 17 years of age, I was lucky enough to join Peder Wallenberg’s beautiful 62’ 1955 built S&S designed yawl REFANUT as a crew from Norfolk, Virginia, sailing offshore along the US east coast, rounding Florida and the Keys, ending near Tampa on the west coast of Florida.

What an adventure! My parents were afraid I would never return, since I had such a great time. I did return, but also brought something new: my love for the tropics. My desire to some day return to these waters would never leave my soul from that day on. I thus returned not only with great experiences but also with a plan. A plan for a life time I am still working on!
In short term, I made up a financial plan with the goal to own a 23’ Viggen, which was the smaller sister to my uncle's Vega. My calculations said I could afford one at the age of 21, if I was working hard. So after school time, I gave extra lessons to school children and sold beds in a furniture store on the week-ends.


In 1982 came the big surprise, when Sweden devaluated the Krona by 16%, while I had my savings in German Marks living in Germany. Suddenly, I could afford the SEK 37.000 (USD 3800 in today’s value) two years earlier! So with 19 years of age, I bought our beloved CELICIA, which I kept for 11 years.

Two weeks after I had met my wife Karolina for the first time, it was Christmas time. And since Karolina’s birthday is on 24 December, I needed a very special birthday present, as well as a Christmas present. Could anything be better than a course to receive a "yachtmasters' licence" for sailboats? I was fortunate enough that Karolina accepted my gift and took the course in 5 months during evening hours! Directly thereafter, we moved to Switzerland, but returned to Sweden during our summer holiday, where I for the first time could introduce CELICIA to Karolina. They fell in love with each other on the spot, despite a freezing cold weather that May we sailed to Norway with CELICIA.

After our return from our sailing vacation, Karolina suggested we could rent a boat in Greece for our honey moon, if we got married one day, that was…. By coincidence, I shortly thereafter asked if she wanted to be my wife. She accepted again! What a great idea that was, by the way... (well, also the marriage, of course)!

So we booked a two weeks bare boat charter, where the regulations said you needed two of the crew to have a yachtmasters' licence. Again, what a fortune that Karolina made the course I gave her as my very first present, since we, of course, preferred to be alone on our honey moon. Somehow the charter company liked our idea as well, giving us a brand new boat they named "Romance". I wonder why?

After the order confirmation of the charter boat, we could start organizing our wedding. The Greek Cyclades were fantastic, and I would love to return to these ancient waters filled with marine history.
In 1994, Karolina was expecting our first child and we started to talk about buying a house. Well, I thought, better buy a new boat before baby and house prevents us to, and so we bought our first Hallberg-Rassy: a second hand HR 29 we called DATSY (that is Ystad backwords!).

A couple of weeks old, our daughter Jessica joined us onboard and we had a couple of wonderful summers, sailing along the Swedish coasts. Our son Jonathan was born in 1996, so eventually we thought of some more space for our growing family and we ordered the Hallberg-Rassy 31 we owned for four seasons.
Our two children Jessica (born in 1994) and Jonathan (born in 1996, on the same 5 March) find sailing a totally natural part of life as seen here in Bohuslän on our last year onboard DATSY in 1998. Here, all essentials in life are present. The world becomes both smaller and, at the same time, larger. The focus is obvious, compact and clearly defined. At the same time, the horizon is indefinite. Nature, the air, the sea, the power, the adventure... all in direct vicinity. Time passes slower, life becomes longer and thus rich. One gets time for quietness, thoughts, talks and solidarity. Sometimes, the experience of having done something well is given as a reward.
We enjoyed four wonderful summers together on our HR-31, which was a wonderful boat, fast, lively, reliable, spacious, well planned and equipped according to our own wishes.
But again, “space” was the key and with our growing children, with their friends on board also eventually, we felt we needed some more space.

More stowage area, head-room for tall Leon (Karolina claims it had been cheaper with some surgery to cut off some of my long legs), ample water- and diesel-tanks and equipment for our longer cruises led us to eventually part from our beloved HR31 REGINA 1.

But before taking a final decision regarding an even bigger boat, Karolina wanted to try out long distance offshore cruising, in first place to improve her own sailing skills. "Yes, yes..." I said, never believing she would ever part from me doing something like this, heading off on her own sailing onboard a HR46! But one day in the autumn of 2000 she had filled in the application form to sail from Tromsö in northernmost Norway on a training boat. Why not sailing in some more comfortable climate? Was my wife this adventurous? I could not believe it!

So in August 2001, Karolina experienced a real adventure, when she left me with our two children and joined Mahina Tiare III for a 17 days and 1400 nautical miles long offshore sail training course. Onboard the Hallberg-Rassy 46, she sailed from Tromsø, close to Nordcap on the Northernmost tip of Norway, via Lofoten along the Atlantic coast of Norway to Gothenburg, Sweden, where I picked her up as the eagerly (and a bit jealous) waiting husband.
Karolina has now definitely passed me on experience and is the best offshore sailor in our family. Her calm judgements are an asset in our sailing plans now, knowing exactly how it is to cope with 14 feet of waves in gale winds on a 46 foot Hallberg-Rassy! The profound knowledge base achieved by Karolina is a great source of information. The fact that Karolina sailed on Mahina and not me, has now given us both an enhanced joy of sailing. While Karolina certainly already was a good sailor before joining, she has turned me into a better listener. Now, our cruising plans, choice of boat and equipment as well as the actual sailing itself have become more fruitful, since knowledge from different angles are merged by working together.

To read the full story of her sail, click here.
We were looking for a sturdy construction, superb craftsmanship and signature seaworthiness as well as elegant lines and spirited performance to fulfill our dreams of longer cruising plans. In case time changes, we also wanted to know that we will be able to retain our financial investment in our boat the day we decided to sell.

With our previous experiences with Hallberg-Rassy boats, it was not difficult to continue our preferences for a Hallberg-Rassy.