Hello, my name is Martin and that's my boat. The name is Styrr. The boat is 108 years old
years old and I own her now for 12 years.
I've been sailing since I'm a little boy so 50 years, 60 years. The first boat I owned
that was a 420, a sailing dinghy. Sailed around Italy to Greece to Turkey and
back. Then I had a steel boat that was built in the Netherlands. We took her
to all the canals in France. Then the boats were getting bigger and bigger and now I'm
in this one. Twenty years ago this was my home. We sailed around the world
twice. Once with this boat once with the previous boat and now we are planning to
sail to Madagascar. We have paying clients
sailing with us usually the Med for one week. Usually they are families with kids.
So we have to stay in the Med for maybe two or three years and then we'll see.
Maybe going down the Red Sea, maybe go to the Pacific and then Southeast Asia. This way too.
She's about 80 foot over deck. A gaff rig ketch. It's eight working sails. I have
more but I don't use them all the time. Got the windlass for the anchor. Down
here you have the storage for the chain and I have paint down here and wine and stuff like that.
Down here they have been the water tanks
but we moved them. Now it's a cabin. I'm alone on the boat now so all the chairs
and stuff is removed. Yeah, that's a good thing on this boat, there are different levels
so people can sit here or they can go on to the cabin roof. Here I sit for my morning coffee.
This is the deck house. In bad weather we can sit outside.
We have the fuel as well. It's not like in a normal yacht where you're always downstairs.
Three cabins like this one. It's a double.
It's for two people or for kids they can sleep up there. They have the
shower and toilet there, just straight ahead.
That we call a small cabin. We give it for one person or if they are really
in love there can be two. It's not that big.
This is nice and it's big, a lot of storage. It has been
before, as far as I know, the owner cabin.
Aft bathroom here.
The boat was built in Scotland so originally she was sailing in cold
countries so this stove is here. I use it in the winter in the Med as well. I just
make a big fire in there.
That's the galley so we can cook here for yeah like 10 people. it's not big but
it's okay. It works. We use electric and gas, but it's hard to refill the gas
bottles sometimes so we change. Now we only have electric. It makes things easier.
That's the wheelhouse or when I'm sailing alone I can sleep up here so I have the overview.
Standard navigation and stuff. I've two autopilot cause I did a lot of
crossings like Pacific or Atlantic on my own so I need a lot of electronic around
the world. When I bought the boat electronic was out of the
maybe 70's. It was good stuff, but not useful anymore and I've got lucky I've
got hit by a lightning strike and this lightning strike killed everything and the
insurance paid so I could buy the new one. *laughter* I got hit twice by lightning. Some
of the boat must be magnetic.
That's the engine room. That's the place
where I spend my days and nights.
That's the main engines. I can store six tons of
fuel. The main engines are from Rolls-Royce from the 60's-70's as
far as I know. And that's the generator. Bunch of old stuff you need for the world
around the sea. Water I can store 1000 liter, but I have a water maker that is producing
250 liters an hour so I don't need more water storage. That's enough.
The boat was ending here. When I bought her it was just a wall and nothing in
between so I just ripped it out to make the bed bigger.
And the hatch was not here. In case of a fire I thought it was a good idea
if you have an emergency escape.
Our cabin is down here so we try to keep the people out of here so we don't make
it too comfortable.
We have the washing machine here and the freezer and all the stuff I need
for working and yeah that's my hammock. That's my second bed.
I use solar panels as well. I have three on this side and three on the other side. When I'm alone I
can live on the solar panels. With people on board, it's impossible.
You see the mast, I did it in Turkey new and that wood was not completely dry so
it's bent a little bit. Now this one is from laminated wood as well and they
are not special or waterproof, just standard laminated wood, but it stays.
The wires, they are standard wires. Nothing is stainless steel. Stainless
steel looks good-looks good and the next day just breaks. Galvanize is more elastic.
It's honest. I see it gets rusty then you can change. Plus for insurance you
would have to change your wires every I guess ten years or something and this
one's now 14 years old. I can just buy the stuff in the hardware store,
makes it cheaper. I can do everything on my own I don't need special terminals or anything.
Well, it's dangerous. I mean staying at home, maybe you
get hit by a car or whatever. Now living around world, it's completely safe. In these 20
years I've got nothing stolen. I never had some bad experience nowhere. I mean
just try, but there are different ways you can live and you can be happy and
standard job can be good as well. But you start with a small boat somewhere or get
a boat and across the Atlantic and we will see what happens. I'll try to do this as
long as I can. I don't know how long it works. Now I'm 61 years old and with 70, I
don't know if I still have the power to do it, but then I will find something else. *laughter*