Lightweight small vessel to sail 15,000 miles

16 Oct 2017

Exlex being prepped in Stockholm, Sweden. Image courtesy of Sven Yrvin

Boatbuilder Sven Yrvin will sail a lightweight vessel 15,000 nautical miles to prove that smaller boats can make longer trips.

The 5.76m long and just over 1m wide Exlex was built using 4cm thick Divinycell sheets from Diab and NM epoxy.

Mr Yrvin, who began the project in April 2015, said: “Divinycell brings buoyancy, stiffness and insulation. I thought, if I build the boat using Divinycell, it will be warm and nice and unsinkable. The NM epoxy is a fantastic adhesive and absorbs only very limited amounts of water.”

Speed over length

Believing that vessel design should first focus on speed that is considered comfortable and suitable rather than length, Mr Yrvin explained: “My new boat is not restricted to a fixed length. I have named it ‘Exlex’ for a reason: the EU wants to ban smaller boats from making longer trips. ‘Exlex’ means ‘outside the law’. Exlex won’t be tied down by any bureaucratic rules and regulations but follow the ocean’s ever-changing landscape.”

As Mr Yrvin plans to sail the vessel to Dunedin in New Zealand, the boat’s lightweight composition is important as it needs less energy to move forward, doesn’t need a lot of sails to keep its speed, and with one third of the sail surface of a regular sailing boat, the masts, designed using carbon fibre, can be substantially shortened, saving additional weight.

Exlex’s journey is due to start in Dingle, Ireland, in June 2018 and is expected to take approximately 300 days.

via Boating Business | Lightweight small vessel to sail 15,000 miles.