Meeting the circumnavigators

Thursday night Torkil and I drove out to the coast (we live in the Trondheimsfjord) to meet Børge Ousland, Thorleif Thorleifsson and Vincent on their way north in a Corsair 31 Ultimate Cruiser.  They are trying to be the first to circumnavigate the north pole in one season.

 The trimaran arrives at Grip around sunset

As seen here, a few minutes after 11pm, it is still almost daylight

Trygve also showed up with his recently finished TRT 12oo, his second build after selling the first one at Easter Island after a dismasting due to failure in the standing rigging (steel).  He now use synthetic rigging only.

Thorleif, Trygve and Børge discussing issues when travelling tens of thousands of miles in a multihull in the cockpit of Trygve's 40ft catamaran.Thorleif, who has mostly sailed monohulls since the 80's, when he sailed multihulls in France, expressed his very positive impressions with the sea going capabilities of the C-31UC, already having been trough some rough weather on their way up the coast.

You can follow Børge and company on his blog

Moulds have been made for the traveller supports and the aft mast support brackets.

I will cut this jig apart and use the inside as a mould for the traveller supports

Mould for the aft mast support brackets.  Foam blank for the next rudder in the background