Necesse part 2 - Ready to start on the 4th of July
Do you remember Necesse? The C&C 35 which was owned by the Lewander family, which has won Gotland Runt several times and which has now undergone a renovation to meet new challenges under the leadership of Filip Wästberg and friends. I was curious if the boat was ready with the new rig, how it went with the adjustment of the sail and everything else needed to be able to start Gotland Runt with ambitions to score a good result. I had a conversation with Filip who is one of the initiators of this wonderful project.
Filip sounds enthusiastic when he describes how they put the new mast (which was built for a Dehler 34) in place and everything just fit. No adjustments needed to be made to neither standing rig nor other details. The fact that the old rig had straight and new ones had swept spreaders was a bit worrying, but not too troubling, says Filip who has talked to many knowledgeable people in the field to understand possible risks.
The new mast was about 1 meter higher than the old one, which of course meant that the old mainsail no longer worked. The sailing loft was called down by the team and finally a new main was found at Gransegel which was originally produced to a Hallberg Rassy that seemed to have the right measures. In addition, they have a large genoa and a smaller jib as well as a well-proven spinnaker. We reasoned together that it would of course have been good with a little redundancy on the sail inventory, but there has simply been no funds for this.
Sailing around Gotland with a boat that has not done so for a while is not cheap. AIS and VHF have been installed and several other safety measures must be considered to get the boat through the safety inspection. Filip liked what KSSS has done regarding security on the website with clear instructions with pictures and descriptive film.
The team has not tested the boat in racing yet, but a 24-hour sailing to Kopparstenarna and some shorter sailing trips have been done with satisfactory results.
Filip thinks that the team, consisting of 6 men who have all sailed at least one Gotland Runt, is well welded together and ready for the challenge. The fact that the boat lacks wind instruments is not something that significantly bothers him.
- We must make sure to be alert on board and make sure to have a good feeling at night to feel the wind shifts.
Necesse starts in SRS C on Sunday July 4th. We wish them the best of luck on the trip around Gotland!
Follow Necesse on Instagram @Necesse35
