She's Magic!

Ten days of Magic Moments were given to us around Easter 2003, when we were able to sail REGINA for more than just a week-end for the first time. We sailed to the German “fjord” Schlei close to the border between Germany and Denmark, having Kappeln as our destination. We, in deed, had Magic Moments onboard REGINA with all sorts of weather conditions, ranging from calm days to 30 kts of wind.

Magic Moments of love to the sea, to the nature and to each other. But also Magic Moments experiencing our new sailing boat.

Regina in Lemkenhafen on the German island of Fehmarn

First of all, the sailing performance of this "cruising boat" was nothing less than Magic. She sails very well both in a light breeze, as well as picking up speed when the wind increases. When broad reaching with 30 kts of wind, we cheered standing at the helm enjoying the speed of the boat. Flying along at constantly over 8 kts was a new experience to us. Many time, she sailed over 9 kts and that was the time when REGINA started to sing her own song of joy: the rudder started to vibrate slightly when exceeding 9 kts giving a soft "grrrrrrr", just as a cat purrs when being comfortable. Admittingly, it was not very easy to keep a steady track with waves coming rolling from the side and I broached the boat a few times with no full rudder control due to the heeling. Sure, some practice is necessary to cope with building waves…

We heard that Magnus Rassy came up to 11 knots sailing with a gennacker in gale winds on his HR 40. We only got it to 9.53 kts, which was a personal record for our family!

Sailing with building waves provided our next Magic Moment: It was quite frustrating to see that it was only a push-button away to avoid broaching and keeping a steady track compared to my own juvenile steering abilities! By pressing the AUTO button on the autopilot, named Rasmus on our boat, REGINA kept a wonderful steady course. The helm started to move before she altered course and thus kept us on a steady track despite all the waves. This is thanks to the new Raymarine 400G course computer with integrated gyro (therefore the "G"). Instead of waiting for a change in course, like other autopilots do, the gyro feels the movements of the boat. By some magic prediction resulting from software calculation, she takes action preceding the wave catches the boat. Magic! I have to keep on learning from Rasmus, so I can equally keep such a steady track as he can.

Mother and son in full harmony

Since the boat has the increased speed potential, also including running by engine, our horizon has suddenly increased. Day-trips have received an increased radius and we can make very much more mileage than in our previous boats. Well, maybe this is not purely thanks to the increased speed, but also thanks to the increased comfort of traveling. She moves like a queen, thanks to her weight and design. None of us got see-sick so far, as we often do in the beginning of the season. Preparing food while sailing was also easy thanks to the well designed galley with everything in reachable distance and comfortably leaning against the “half island” opposite the stove.

Personally, I had my magic moment when I was stretching out on the wonderful aft deck looking up to the sails listening to the pouring waters passing by, feeling that everything was in order. I love our aft deck!

Magic was also our new experience with a bow thruster, safely controlling the boat into or out of a berth, even under heavy side wind conditions. Since the boat turns around the center of gravity, you can even control the stern by using the bow thruster when backing out! A bow thruster, which, by us, always has been looked at as “non-seamanship” and "cheating", has really made mooring in crowded harbours under strong winds easier. It sure is a magic piece of equipment!

Jessica hanging her T-shirt to dry in the engine room, kept warm by both the engine and the diesel heater

More magic moments: How often had we not wondered what that big vessel was doing pointing at us?! Where did it go? What speed did it have? Would it become dangerous? Should we change course? On REGINA, suddenly our new electronic intelligence onboard seem to foresee the future by calculating the time and closest point of approach, picking up the other vessel’s course and speed on our Radar! Of course, this MARPA-facility ("Mini Automatic Radar Plotting Aid") calculates with constant course and speed of the involved vessels, but it gives us a hint and answers to all these questions we often had asked ourselves. No computer game in the world can these days compete with playing around with the radar, our kids think! Especially other sailing boats are often "caught" to find out if they sail faster than us! Radar Overlay is another of these magic electronic gimmicks. You have the plotter presenting the chart and onto the same picture, in a different colour, you have the radar picture synchronized and overlayed. Each buoy has its echo, but if there is an echo without a sea mark, it must obviously be boat, which is then easily confirmed by MARPA. It is a toy, yes, but it is a helpful toy that is fun and - magic! I am glad we are brought up with traditional navigation, because with this, anybody can suddenly navigate. But relying on it can be dangerous.

Karolina using the galley for (traditional) navigation with an overview chart (above) and at the outside chart table for eye-ball navigation with paper charts, reading the port handbook for our next landfall (right)

Finally, it can't be described other than magic to take ordinary sea water, pump it through a watermaker and it suddenly transforms into the best drinking water! With our two water tanks, we keep one as “reserve” full of water and use the other one on a daily basis. We are using ample amounts of water including daily showers, and we run the watermaker for two hours every second day making 120 liters of fresh water! It’s like at home and just magic!

In line with to our plans for 2003, we have started to engage our "mobile office" with the aim to maximize our time onboard while working from here as much as possible during summer. Here, Karolina is keeping contact with our clients by e-mail. The Macintosh is generally preferred with its UNIX based operating system OS X, while the PC in the background also can be used when we both work at the same time.

You now ask, what is not so magic? What does not work as expected? Where are the dissapointments? Not very much, yet, actually.

As expected, the Volvo-alternator on the engine typically only charges approx 20 - 30 A depending on how empty the batteries are. With 560 Ah capacity on board, the Volvo-alternator considers 450 Ah, for example, as "80% full" and thus does not bulk charge until the battery is much more empty. With a typical daily consumption of 100 - 200 Ah, we are thus dependent on shore power, which is not satisfactory at all. During the coming winter, we will install an adequate HOA (High Output Alternator). We give Volvo a chance to present their own system first (press conference by Volvo much longed-for and expected in mid June), otherwise we will opt for a Mastervolt or Balmar system.

We experience the holding tank for the toilet of 57 liters being too small for four people on board and not much more than we had on the HR31 and of the same size as on the HR34. The predecessor HR 39 had a 70 liter holding tank, which was more adaquate, I think, while the HR43 has 2 x 60 = 120 liters holding tanks for their two toilets onboard.

As always, when taking over a new boat, there are small things to get corrected. The interesting point is to observe how Hallberg-Rassy and the other suppliers treats these cases, rather than pointing at specific things that are to be fixed since they could differ from boat to boat depending on the installed equippment. In any case, I can mention that the very few things that are being corrected for us, are treated seriously, professional and quickly.

Some examples:

The plastic screwing knobs to hold the saucepans in place in choppy seas on our ENO stove didn't last long. One phone call to the ENO representative in Sweden (Thermoprodukter AB) and the next day four new knobs were in our mailbox with an excuse and explanation that the knobs on the latest model are now of a different kind not breaking any longer. These newer types were sent to us.
I thought it was not fool-proof to know which halyard goes where on the mast. One phone call to Seldén Mast AB and the next day we had some stickers for the various halyards on the mast.
A block on the mast got bent in a gale due to a too great angle between in-going and outgoing outhaul line for the main sail. Seldén and Hallberg-Rassy jointly are improving the construction and new parts are promptly being sent and installed by the nearest Hallberg-Rassy dealer.
The watermaker was complaining about low voltage when running on batteries alone, while it was fine making water while the engine was running providing ample voltage. This circumstance was already noted by Magnus Rassy when test sailing our boat and was fixed the day after our commissioning, so now we can also make waker silently without the engine running.
The watermaker was (sometimes) giving an alarm for no reason when Autoflushing. This software bug is to be dealt with by Spectra.
When turning the freezer into a fridge by pressing a switch (it is of dual type with double thermostats) it was cooling to much in my taste. A new thermostat was sent promptly sent by Thermoprodukter, representing Isotherm in Sweden.
The deck wash pump was fuesed slightly too weak with a 10A fuse thus trigging while using. The nearest HR-dealer quickly exchanged the automatic fuse into a 16A, which should have been there from the beginning.

Minor things like these are unavoidable in such a complex and custom built boat and I am more than delighted about the after sales service by Hallberg-Rassy.

And if any spare parts are needed, there is always HR Parts & Accessories providing HR owners with original spare parts on a word-wide basis. In my eyes, Vickie Vance at HR Parts & Accessories knows exactly what goes on which Hallberg-Rassy, irrespectively of age. Vickie and her team have an impressive knowledge of literally any nut or bolt ever put onto a Hallberg-Rassy boat. And if they don't know, there are all experts available at the Hallberg-Rassy yard just across the street in Ellös. Some of the boat-builders there have worked at the yard for over 40 years and they often remember very well...

Vickie Vance serving HR owners world-wide with spare parts

This world-wide service provided by HR Parts & Accessories is one of the reasons why we chose to buy a Hallberg-Rassy boat. Spare parts are such an important issue when sailing the oceans. While vital spare parts always should be carried on board, it's good to know that Vickie is keeping a stock for the rest of it, sending parts by courier under way as necessary. That's a great service and maybe Vickie also is a little bit magic!?

I find it safe, quick and efficient to buy from Vickie and you know you get the right stuff to the right price. Of greatest help, in any case, is to have a simple digital camera onboard and e-mail a picture to a vendor. A picture always says more than 1000 words...