merry christmas! 🎄and another update 🛠️…
Oh wow, it’s been a while since the last update! Sorry for this but time really flew by like crazy. And suddenly it’s only 8 months to go until the start of the Globe 40. O M G.
Wilson right after we ripped out EVERYTHING.
As you maybe can imagine, 8 months feel like nothing at the moment. Wilson looks so naked. There are so many things still to do and to decide. I don’t know where those last 4 months went. But it doesn’t matter. There is a lot of progress, and certainly there is a light at the end of the tunnel. With a long way to go. But let’s start where we ended in the last update :)
So when I wrote the last update, I was chilling on Wilson, somewhere in the middle of the Biscay, super happy, underestimating of course what lies ahead. Which is good, otherwise I would not do it. Overthinking leads to giving up before it starts.
Wilson arrived in rainy Pwllheli.
So I can happily tell you that we made it to North Wales, no Orca attacks or whatsoever and the sail was just beautiful. And Wilson seems strong. She’ll take us everywhere for sure. Wales welcomed us with stormy super rainy gray weather in August. As soon as we arrived, the work started. First a bit overwhelming, me not really realising that I just bought this weapon and how much work it will be, so finding a start was a bit hard. But Jade, the brain, knew what we had to do. Then, after 2 more weeks in the water where we prepared the cradle for Wilson, and after one more nice sunset sail, we decided to empty her and take off all the sails and prepare her for dismasting and taking off the keel so she can go on her lovely prepared refit cradle.
Oh man, taking off the keel was a mission! It took us many hours until we managed to break that resin that was filled into where the keel is attached to the hull. That was some really strong shit. All the 12 bolts were already loose and the keel, with its 1,8 tons, was stuck to the hull only with that resin. But patience and power triumphed and Wilson suddenly has been dismantled into its several parts. It was very good to see that the hull and keel are super strong though! Very promising.
So there she goes, without keel and mast, nice and low on her cradle, her mast next to her, keel and rudders somewhere else, and it was finally time for me to take off that 10 years old hull sticker. I couldn’t wait to see her properly, without all those rainbow colours. And I was happy to see that she looks good underneath. She’s cream acutally. A real vintage Class 40.
Then we just went crazy. Jade went through the boat like a tornado until nothing was left inside. We pulled out every single cable, all the electrics have been taken out. Holy moly. The boat had a very messy electrical system, you could tell that many owners added their own idea every now and then. And she had NKE electronics and autopilots. Having all the old stuff out of the boat I decided to change Wilson from NKE to B&G system. With all these electrics topics ahead, we are very very lucky to have Chris Dobson from UK Marine Electronics Ltd. joining our team. He will do his best to get us around the world happily with no major electrics issues :)
With Chris we will attack Wilson in January, right after the boat show in DĂĽsseldorf, where I am doing an interview on the sailing center stage on January 21st at 12:00 btw ;)
So the electric system on Wilson will be a super hot and interesting topic, which we will keep you updated about when it happens!
While all this happened, we started sanding and fiberglassing like crazy. The mission was to add 2 more watertight bulkheads to Wilson. The rules for Cat. 0 and also for the Globe 40 race say that the boat has to have 5 watertight compartments. Wilson of course had only 3 since Class 40s are normally built for Cat. 1 races.
Also we have to add and fiberglass in 1,6 mÂł of unsinkability foam to the boat to comply with Class 40 rules. That is a mission, I can tell you. But we are doing very very well with it since we stopped overthinking it.
For “comfort” reasons, we decided to build wings for Wilson. Since her cockpit is super unprotected, we built a kind of deflectors for all the big amounts of water coming from the bow to the cockpit. They are almost ready to be fiberglassed to the boat when the weather gets a bit better and warmer. We are quite proud of them to be honest!
In the meantime, in September, I had to move out of my apartment in Austria. I will spend most of the next years preparing Wilson and racing around the world, so it was clear, that renting an apartment at the same time is just not possible. So I drove to Austria, emptied my flat, moved in to my Mom’s and spent a month there before going back to the UK. This time with my best buddy - my dog!
happy doggy, happy human
Of course there were also all the old sails to be measured and there are a lot of decisions to be taken together with the sailmaker and the sail designer. This is not an easy one after only so little sailing on Wilson. But we will get there. And it is very exciting to see how it all comes together with many amazing brains doing the best they can! We really can’t wait to have her in the water again and test everything. The plan is to haul her in in March. Fingers crossed!
measuring the old sails
As you can tell now, many things have happened and for sure I forgot a few.. right now I am in Austria for some christmas days off but will get back to Wilson just before New Years to continue and finally finish the fiberglassing and sanding work, aswell as the painting job, so that we are perfectly ready to install the electrics and give Wilson back some life!
Oh and something else happened just before christmas! I finally sold my Mojo - my much loved Mini 6.50. It was a sad but also happy day. She has been on the dry for almost a year, waiting for her new owner and we finally found him. All the best to Malo who will do another Mini Transat in 2027 with beautiful Mojo! ⛵💕
Bye bye my lovely Mojo!
If you made it through this blog, liked what you read and feel like you want to help us get to the starting line well prepared: I have just created a page on this website called “Support Us”, where we offer crazy nice packages for supporting us and you can scroll through the list of items that Wilson definitely needs to make it around the world safely. We do really appreciate every support since this project is a low budget one and we are very proud that we decided for an older boat to do a proper refit and bring her back to life. :)
I hope you all had very lovely christmas holidays and I wish you only the best for an amazing and exciting new year! ❤️
Merry Christmas from Wilsons’ Crew in snowy Austria!