Ariadne summer 2019

Ariadne floats finally

Last fall, or rather, when I was heading towards the end of last year’s sailing season,

I noticed the engine’s marine clutch, which was rattling ominously slowly when driving forward. At first, I planned to buy a repair kit and do the renovation myself, but due to the busy spring, I ended up outsourcing the renovation work. I found a Dutch company that sold refurbished Hurth brand clutches and they even gave them a warranty. After a long deliberation, I finally decided on a completely new one - even though the original manufacturer had stopped manufacturing them a long time ago. An Italian workshop had bought the rights to it, so new ones were available under the ZF brand. Although I tested the dealer quite hard to see if the new one would be exactly the same in terms of dimensions and gear ratios. The answer was convincingly positive, so I ordered the clutch. The delivery time was a week and Midsummer fell on the same week, so the first sailing from the shipyard to Inkoo would still have to be done with the old clutch.

Ariadne was launched during the Midsummer Ship Week without any problems and Ariadne sailed to her home port as a Midsummer sailing, with Niina as the crew, as well as Aimo and Pim. After Midsummer, a new clutch arrived. Installation was almost as easy as “throwing it”; six fastening bolts were removed from the old one and the bolts on the propeller shaft flange were removed and the shaft was pushed outwards, and the old one came off with a light tap. As promised, the new one was exactly the same and it went into place perfectly.

Ariadne floats finally

July came and the holidays. Although Johanna had not been launched, that did not mean that she did not require attention. Three years of drought had dried out the hull considerably. I had already decided in the spring that Johanna needed to be at least filled with water for the summer to swell the hull to normal condition if she was not to be launched. However, to mix up the calendars, there was an Eagles gig in Dublin at the beginning of July. It was still really great and memorable. As good as Van the Man a few years ago in Northern Ireland and yes, I would gladly do it again, thank you.

Johanna had been for sale both on Nettivene in Finland and on Blocket in Sweden. I removed her from Nettivene because there were practically no inquiries at all, except for a few keel kickers. However, I still put Johanna on Blocket because there were significantly more reasonable inquiries from that direction. That’s how it happened, two potential buyers registered and said they would come to see Johanna. The program for the weekend of the second week of the holiday would be an introduction to Johanna, on Saturday in Swedish and on Sunday in Finnish. The holiday sailing was moved forward a week.

Since the intention was to also sail during the holiday, we interrupted the renovation of Johanna and set off to sail on Ariadne for no less than ten days. The holiday sailing began on Saturday, July 20. Ballerina was also leaving on the same day, with Aimo and Pimi accompanied by Ilex, Kati and Mila. The port destination for both of them ended up being Elisaari.

Ariadne’s new coupling worked flawlessly and after a considerable sea voyage we arrived in Elisaari somewhat after Ballerina and moored next to her. There was a midsummer activity on the line, so the evening passed without doing anything special.

Ariadne leaving Elisaari

Seuraavaksi kohteeksi valikoitui Jussarö, jonne starttasimme seuraavana aamuna täydellisessä pläkässä. Träskön paikkeilla alkoi tuulla sen verran, että nostimme purjeet loppumatkan ajaksi. Loppupäivän ja illan ohjelmassa oli muunmuassa piknik black beachilla ja muutaman rommitotin nauttiminen jonka myötä ilta venähti melko pitkälle aamuyöhön saakka.

Ariadne leaving Elisaari

Heading towards Sommarö boat yard, leaving Jussarö

Since Ariadne’s women were going to an Ed Sheeran concert in a few days, it meant that we would have to be in Hanko, for example, so that they could visit their homes flexibly. However, Johanna needed water in her bilge, so instead of heading west, we decided to turn the bow towards Sommarö shipyard. Ballerina set off towards Hanko. The journey to the shipyard was initially by sailing and the rest of the journey was made by plane.

We moored at the shipyard’s quay in the side parking lot, and Lila came later in the evening to pick up the ship’s women and I stayed at the shipyard’s quay for two days. There would have been work on Ariadne too, but both days were spent watering Johanna. The women returned two days later, on July 24, and Sofia left by car to Inkoo, from where she would head back to the British. We stayed at the shipyard’s quay for one more night.

The morning was spent watering Johanna. In the afternoon we moved to Källviken, our usual spot on the southern shore, bow to shore and stern to anchor. The warm, sunny July weather was the reason for the unprecedented incident, I also went swimming. The days off were starting to run out, as I had to be at work in a week. That’s why we thought of going a little further than Hanko. We left the side parking lot at six in the morning and headed west, with Högsåra as our destination. We arrived well before the afternoon rush at Lillbacka harbor and got the last suitable place, albeit with the stern facing the fairway. We spent two warm and sunny summer days in Högsåra. Since the short holiday sailing was coming to an end, we unsurprisingly chose Hanko as our next destination. In Hanko we docked on the city side next to the Utö cruiser. Hangover at Classic Pizza called again, as it has always done in Hanko since Johanna’s import gig. The evening was spent on the HSF upper terrace and the next morning we set off towards Inkoo. In Barösund we tried to moor at the shop’s guest quay but before we could do so we came to our senses and realized that Ariadne would not fit in the one-meter-wide gap. Elisaari was chosen as the port for the last night.

On a calm morning we proceeded towards our home port under engine power. The wind picked up in Inkoo Bay as it often does just before mooring and caused a slight harrowing while mooring, although nothing was broken and no damage was done.