Interesting lecture on bluewater cruising at Open Yard

09/07/2018

As the tradition has it, there will be an interesting lecture on Saturday evening at the Open Yard weekend 25 August 2018. The lecture will be held in English by Americans Bob Frantz and his son Eric. Bob and Eric had dreams of sailing around the world. Join them to hear the ups and downs of the adventure on their Hallberg-Rassy 43, Blue Heron. What was the genesis of their dreams? What were the obstacles they faced and how did they overcome them?

Learn about how they planned the route, and why they skipped the traditional stops in the Marquesas in favor of Easter and Pitcairn Islands. Hear about close encounters with possible pirates in the Indian Ocean, and conversations on VHF with drilling rig captains while sailing through the South Atlantic.

Winter storms in the North Atlantic shortly after leaving tested their commitment to the plan, but even more severe weather in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans tested the mettle of Blue Heron.

When they embarked on their journey, Eric was 20 years old, having just graduated from University. Bob was 60 and had just retired from a career as an environmental attorney. Neither of them had extensive bluewater experience. Bob had crewed in his 30's, making trips from the US mainland to the Caribbean. Although he grew up around boats, none of that experience had been on large sailboats in open water. Eric was a fine racing sailor, having started when he was 9, but had sailed mostly dinghies, although he had also crewed on large boats in races. His only bluewater experience was the shakedown cruise to Bermuda the year before departing on the circumnavigation.

Spending nearly two years together on a sailboat gave Bob and Eric lots of time to build on or diminish their already strong relationship. How did they relate to each other when inevitable things went wrong? Are they still talking to each other? What did they learn from each other? Would they make the trip again?

Bob and Eric will answer these and other questions as part of the presentation, and they will share some of the spectacular scenery through photos and videos taken during the trip.

Application needed

The lecture will be held on Saturday 25 August 2018 at 19.00 in the marina area, in the big white building close to the mountain, and we will start with dinner, followed by the lecture. As the number of seats to the lecture are limited and dinner with beverage will be served, we request a prepayment of tickets from you. The Saturday night lecture including dinner costs SEK 400 (roughly 40 Euros) per person. Please give us your Visa, Eurocard or Mastercard number, expiry date, CVX2-code (CVX2-code is the three last digits right of the signature on the back of the card), name, address, mobile phone number, email address and your written agreement for us charging the above mentioned amount. For safety reasons we do not want you to email text with facts about your credit card. Please send either a photo or a scanned hand writt­en letter of the data to info@hallberg-rassy.se. For Swedish citizens, please use Swedish Bankgiro 541-2051 or Swish 123 346 92 93.

Parking and to see the yard and the boats in the water is free of charge.