listening to the little voices

This morning, the brightest most beautiful day this winter of only two weeks, I checked in with Sven Yrvind. Nearly every day on Utoob he posts the progress on his small boat build in Sweden. After each post, he narrates the story of building Bris 20' x 5' in the basement of his mother's home  before sailing around Cape Horn. Sven offers me much more than heroic tales, he offers his logic on the supremacy of small boats. His early life, beset by (undiagnosed) dyslexia, labelling as stupid by teachers and bullied in the military services, allowed him to develop an iron clad logic and unique individualism. Although aged 86 years and having sailed more sea miles than most, he still has detractors, but his iron will prevails, as does his faith in small boats. 

This is Bris, built under his mother's home I'm Sweden and later sailed atoimd the Horn. 20', unstayed rig, not unlike Clancy. 

More recently a Frenchman, Yann Quenet in the radically different 4m/15ft Baluchon circumnavigated. 

 With her flat bilge, very Sharpie like. Her bluff bow might owe something to her length trimming principles, but no centreboard, a tall fixed keel. 

Something deliciously unique shows Sven toeing Amphibi-Bris to the water in the very flat landscape of Sweden. To this day, Sven appears to be a cycling, engine-shunning sailor.