Sleipnir
II - Aug 2000, Alderney
With our last boat, Sleipnir II, we visited
- Baltic
- Northern France, i.e. Brittany
- Northern Spain, the beautiful rias
- Canary Islands
- Cabo Verde (Sal, Boavista, Sao Nicolau and Mindelo)
- The Carribean (Martinique, Trinidad & Tobago, Guadeloupe)
- Azores
- and back to Brest
We liked the boat and she looked after us well. But at the end of the trip we had the cabin plastered with drawings of a possible Sleipnir III - with a lot of ideas - and we decided to go for it.
We sent a detailed description (see specification) to architects and boatyards in Europe, USA and Australia and after some evaluations we found that
- the boat didn't exist 'off the shelf'
- there were no plans that came really close available for construction
- few architects and even less boatyards were interested (most boatyards didn't even take the pain to produce answers to our requests)
- we weren't rich enough :-(
So we decided to build ourselves....
After a lengthy search we found Garry Lidgard in Australia who produced the plans for a kitset construction with Epoxy/Balsa composite panels.
As the start of the construction approached we obtained residency visa for Australia and decided to migrate from Europe and build in the Brisbane area.
Why in Australia?
- The architect that made the kitset plans for us is here
- The material is produced here
- The climate is ideal for boatbuilding (no Epoxy work over 70% humidity - so wait for that in Belgium :-))
- It's cheaper than Europe
- It adds to the fun and the next cruise will start in exciting, new cruising grounds (FIDJI, NOUMEA just to name two destinations that are in front of our doorsteps now......)