Hi Thomas and everybody else here

I am new to the JRA and interested in Victors boat. I live in Tromsø, Northern Norway. I have been following the yahoo group and later also the JRA forum for a couple of years without participating, and without making the jump from bermudan to junk. I had been in contact with Victor 5 years ago, about the time he startet to convert the iw31. He provided me with sailplans he had once made for an identical boat as minee, which is quite similar to the IW31, only a little bit smaller. I never found the time or extra motivation to convert the boat, since the old rig still works fine even after 8 years i my posession. And with a family of 3 kids time is scarce, therefore not used on things not strictly necessary. Fortunately the boys (now 7 and 9) love the combination of sailing and fishing and complain about how little time we spend on the boat. My boat would need some serious overhauling next summer so I wondered if I maybe should just sell it for what I can get and buy Victors boat. For some reason I don´t know he had to wait for someones answer for a few weeks and answered me today. 

My question to you, Thomas, is if you could send me some pictures you made when you visited Victor this summer, and maybe tell me something more specific about your observations on the boat. I am mostly interested in if it is dry inside and how it smells inside or if there is rain leaks apart from the hatch. I tried to write you an email already a month ago after you posted the information on the boat, but for some reason I never got an answer. I would be glad, however, if you still could provide me with pictures and information.

Matti

Thank you for the reply Mark. (Un)fortunately(?) it was too much trouble for Victor and more complicated than I thought to ship the boat to Tromsø so there is a new happy owner somewhere in southern Norway. But on the positive side I can now start to refurbish and convert my old boat instead of selling it, although it will probably take at least two years to get everything done.

Matti
I can see the point with converting your Smiling rather than starting a big re-building project (including fitting an engine) of a new boat. The fine thing with converting the rig on a boat that you know well is that you will recognise the rig-related changes in performance.

 I have always liked the Smiling. The rudder may be on the small side (possibly, I am not sure), but that may not be a problem. Here is a photo from 2012 when we had the second outing in Edmond Dantes (Mikkel 32) with her brand new junk sail. We actually (slowly) overtook a Smiling that day. I think it would have competed better against us with a 40sqm JR than with the 35sqm Bm rig (14 + 21) used in this case.

 This summer I have also found that the JR makes a better fishing boat as there is much less clutter in the cockpit, and the speed is easier to adjust (“mackerel speed” < 3kts). Why on earth did it take me so long to find out that  -  how one-eyed can a man be???

Good luck!
Arne, in Stavanger

Hm, I guess you are more than only half right, Annie.
However, I try not to let speed beat economy and simplicity, so carbon masts and wingsails are not for me. The last  2-5% speed you gain with these extras are important if you race, but I can do well without them. In short, I try to make the sails good enough in the first place instead of adding cost and complexity to make them perfect.

All over Norway (..I wonder if it started in Finland...) there is held a sort of low-end car races (kind of rally-cross, not so fast, so quite safe), where anyone can make a bid on a car after the race. The max price (afaik) is 9000kroner. The races give bags of fun, both for the participants and the on-lookers. This idea could have been exported to a sailboat race-class or two and made racing just as fun and still affordable.

Anyway, as for rig development, for my own part I am about to say ‘job done’ or ‘good enough for me’. Am I about to grow up?

Cheers, Arne

PS: Back to topic: I still think that Victor’s boat would be a great buy. By breaking the big interior project into 3-4 smaller jobs, the boat could even be day-sailed in between working on her, since the hull, rig and rudder is good.