Lightweight small vessel to sail 15,000 miles<\/p>\n
16 Oct 2017<\/p>\n
Exlex being prepped in Stockholm, Sweden. Image courtesy of Sven Yrvin<\/p>\n
Boatbuilder Sven Yrvin will sail a lightweight vessel 15,000 nautical miles to prove that smaller boats can make longer trips.<\/p>\n
The 5.76m long and just over 1m wide Exlex was built using 4cm thick Divinycell sheets from Diab and NM epoxy.<\/p>\n
Mr Yrvin, who began the project in April 2015, said: \u201cDivinycell 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speed over length<\/p>\n
Believing that vessel design should first focus on speed that is considered comfortable and suitable rather than length, Mr Yrvin explained: \u201cMy new boat is not restricted to a fixed length. I have named it \u2018Exlex\u2019 for a reason: the EU wants to ban smaller boats from making longer trips. \u2018Exlex\u2019 means \u2018outside the law\u2019. Exlex won\u2019t be tied down by any bureaucratic rules and regulations but follow the ocean’s ever-changing landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mr Yrvin plans to sail the vessel to Dunedin in New Zealand, the boat\u2019s lightweight composition is important as it needs less energy to move forward, doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Exlex\u2019s journey is due to start in Dingle, Ireland, in June 2018 and is expected to take approximately 300 days.<\/p>\n
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