Welcome onboard the Royal Albatross!

We went up the slip last Monday. It was quite interesting. Captain Ulf is on leave, enjoying spring in Sweden, so our project manager, Richard Lamble, was going to take care of the operation. A little while before we started moving, he informed me that he would be leading from the shore, and that I was to be in charge on the ship. Windy is like ten or twenty times heavier than anything I have ever handled before. Luckily, to assist me I had Kenneth who is an experienced sailor and who speaks English, plus six Malaysian welders who didn't. No experience of any boats at all, and not a single word to communicate with. It was great fun!

Other things that happened this week include the taking down of the masts. Quite an easy job with a large crane. Feels good to have that crap down. Next time they come up, they will be shiny and ship shape. And it is not going to be a suicide mission any longer to climb them. Things that didn't happen this week was ordering of material. It is weird how lousy many suppliers are at actually selling the stuff they provide. I told one company over a week ago, that we had decided to order from them, and asked for a final quote including shipment. They still haven't been able to produce that, although I have been in touch with them a couple of times. Another place has had their email account too full to receive anything for over a week. It is a real hassle to find all the material for a genuine traditional rigging in this part of the world.

We have now officially changed name by the way. Windy is no longer Windy, she is now known as Royal Albatross. Yeah, I know it sounds a bit tacky, but it is actually the name of a species of albatross. Google it. It is just a big bird that flies a lot over big waters. Not such a bad name really*.


There she is, 200 tons of steel resting peacefully on the slip.


Looking forward from under the ship, facing the winch house. Note the wing keel. Makes her underwater body look like a retarded seal from outer space, but it is probably good for both stability and for reducing leeway. Plus you can slip up without any side stanchions or other supports.


Main saloon under the poop deck. Unusual layout with a little touch of the Pirates of the Caribbean. Haven't the welders done a marvelous work? Imagine this with lit chandeliers, classical music and cocktails!


And they have done absolute magic to the beautiful windows, too!

Design and daily routines

Life in our little world follows it's daily routine. The welding contractors make noises in the workshop and the ship, the office bunch are silently doing their things, while assuming the computer bent cheese doodle position, and the crew is somewhat confused in between, like fish on dry land. This life ashore is a little boring, at least on the surface. We have the occasional event or mishap to make things interesting, such as when we have cake for dessert or the welders set the ship's floorboards on fire, but it isn't very much to write about really.


Birds eye view of our little world, taken from the mizzenmast crosstrees.


Facing the other way from the same position. Note that the futtock shrouds are missing under the spanker crosstrees. None of the masts had futtock shrouds. That means that she has sailed with the topmasts effectively stayed by the backstays, and not much more. Scary...

Under the surface though, a lot of action is taking place. Our little vendetta with Massimo, the wannabe Mafioso, was taken to a new level when he tried to steal timber from us yesterday. And I have been turned into a genuine office rat the last two weeks. It started out with some really interesting jobs, helping Ulf with rigging design. It is fascinating to see that some of the stuff we did at university can actually be applied in real life. I have played around with trigonometrics and force vectors on my calculator and my laptop, discussed galvanic corrosion and fatigue limits, and I have had quite a few opportunities to ponder upon the need for a structured and professional design process. I guess I also have a basic level of fluency in the semantics of shape, which is kindda helpful.


Suggestion for gooseneck fitting for boom and standing gaff on the spanker mast.

Ulf went home to Sweden last Monday evening and left me in charge of a pile of administration routines. I guess I have done things like this before but it is still a bit scary to be ultimately responsible for basically everything, from mooring lines to coffee, to welders time sheets. It also means that I have much less time to continue with rigging design. Especially since I am fairly busy looking for suppliers for all kinds of stuff they don't use in this part of the world, such as pine tar, tallow, zinc white, 6x7 wire rope, you name it. My metamorphosis into an office rat is completed.


Welders in the engine room. They were working on the starboard side while I was making a welding template for the port generator support. Hot like hell, sweat pouring, angle grinder embers flying in the air, smoke and flashes from the welding... Great fun!


Esther, our Singaporean accountant doing... accounting?


Lee-Ann working hard on systems design, while Allan is procrastinating


Mel was feeling lost in the chaos so he buggered off and built something

Some more explanations of the nautical lingo:
Futtock shrouds: Shrouds leaning out from the mast. The lower end attached a bit under the crosstrees and the upper end attached to the outboard end of the crosstrees. Takes up the tension from the shrouds over the crosstrees. (Puttingvant/Pyttingvant.)

Mizzen: The second mast from the stern on a four-masted ship. (Kryssmast i det här fallet. Annars vanligen översatt mesan på fartyg med färre master, då mesan/mizzen är den aktersta masten.)

Backstays: Wires staying the mast aft. (Barduner/backstag.)

Mooring lines: Lines holding the ship to the dock. (Förtöjningslinor)

Tallow: Grease that you get from squeezing the shit out of a dead sheep, or sometimes another animal such as a cow. (Talg)

Nautical dictionary!

Sorry I haven't written for a couple of days! Been a bit busy. But a lot of yummy stuff is comming up shortly, be patient! On request, here comes a list of nautical mumbo jumbo:

Crosstrees: Timbers supporting shrouds around the area where masts overlap. (Salning)

Fo'c'sle = Forecastle: Area below deck at the bow, usually used as crew quarters ("in the fo'c'sle"), or a raised deck area at the bow ("on the fo'c'sle). (Förskans/back; i förskansen/på backen)

Lashing: Attachment where two workpieces are tied together with a line. (Surrning)

Ratboard: Wooden ratline (Vevlingslatta/trävevling)

Ratlines: Footstep lashed between the shrouds. Used as ladder rungs when climbing the mast. (Vevling)

Shroud: Line or wire staying a mast sideways. (Vant)

Spanker mast: The aftmost mast on a four masted ship. (Mesan i det här fallet. Mesan översätts oftast mizzen om man har tre eller färre master. Mizzen på Windy är mast nummer två akterifrån och kan kallas kryssmast på svenska.)

Stringer: Fore-and-aft hull reinforcement beam. (Stringer, essing, långskeppsbalk)

Topside: Outside of a hull above waterline. (Fribord, skrovsida)

Whipping twine: Thread/string used to whip the end of lines, to keep the strands and yarns from coming apart. (Taglingsgarn)