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Number two: Delilah

A Skäreläja in average condition and with an old engine would approximate cost around 10.000€ - 15.000€ (back then in the early 2000's and now in 2020). That was out of my budget, but the Skäreläja boat type is not the only choice on the Swedish West Coast. There are others, like Marstrands snipa, Nicanders' snipa and Gullholmesnipan for example. The Gullholmesnipan had to different versions, one open as my previous one and one with a build similar to Skäreläja. I managed to get one older Gullholmesnipan in plastic, and a wooden build. My plan was to renew both all wooden parts as also the old engine (this time it was Albin 011). However, one year later my life took another turn, from Marstrand on the Swedish West Coast to Finland and the Gulf of Finland. A couple of months after our move, the new owners had a disastrous incident when the engine boiled. But like Skäreläja, an upgraded Gullholme snipa is also coveted and valuable. As you see, it clearly reminds of a Skäreläja.
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Number one: Karl-Åke

Once upon a time, back in Marstrand during the 1990's I had a wooden boat, Orust snipa, built at the island Orust in the late 1960's. My parents gave us children gifts one year, my gift was to inherit my mothers boat. Boats usually have women name, but when the skipper is a woman the boat name can have a male name. So I inherited both a boat and its name: Karl-Åke. The history of the name is a combination of her son (me) and her grandson (Åke).   Every Spring, after every Winter I only not had to fix the boat, I also had to "watery" the boat so the dry wood should soak in water and expand, get tight again. Every Winter but one we I had the boat in a boat house, that year when it was outside under the sun I had 1-2 centimetre cracks - with enough water it got tight even if I was very skeptical at first. The places inside the boathouse (a barn) usually was inherited in a family, how I could get one spot there is still a mystery.    I remember one year when the boat refu

Seaborn

And once again we're seaborn! Because of the COVID-19 situation, our Captain Keijo did all the work himself! The crew embarked later in the evening, with lots of joy!

Magic Sponge

During this Winter the tarpaulin protection have caused some dark stains on the boat. Well, let's see if a magic sponge would make the trick? Good enough!    

The sand blasted misses

During 2012-2013 we decided to get rid of all the old bottom paint. However that was project way harder than expected, therefore we decided to get professional help and get it sand blasted. However, now this season in 2020 when we took away the jetty we realized the "sand blaster guy" have missed some spots as he hadn't taken away the jetty.   So when Kalle has taken care of the wooden parts (jetty and stairs) Keijo has re-done the bottom surface and painted those exposed spots.  

Layers of layers

Just before Christmas 2011 Petter, together with friends, had taken up our new boat, during the Winter it should be inside at one small ship yard's garage. Now when the boat finally was up from the sea we could get a better look at the bottom. Petter wrote: " Kalle! Här kommer lite bilder på båten. Det finns lite att göra i botten för er nästa år. Skall försöka få bort rosten från badstegen när båten kommer in i värmen. Den nya masten är under behandling. Massiv teak, som kommer att oljas. Hej! Petter " We decided at that time it would be better to have a shorter mast. We also realized there would be loads of hard work to get rid of the layers of layers of layers of bottom paint. And after the first Finnish season we realized we needed professional help to get rid of all the old paint!

Those were the days

The Swedish photographer Tore Hagman have done a lot of very nice photo books, one in particular is from the Swedish West Coast ( Västkust : från Nidingen till Koster ), published both in Swedish and English. There is some pictures from the hometown of Skäreläja and skipper Kalle (author of this blog, LLV member 809). And actually, most likely this Vera Skäreläja is on this picture. And if we take a closer look at the picture there's two interesting boats to have a closer look at. On the docks in front left, there's a wooden boat that belonged to Kalle back then. And on the Marstrand Island, almost in the middle of the picture you'll find "Vera LLV".   Keijo, captain and owner of Vera (LLV member 226), bought Vera in the Autumn of 2011. Kalle's father Petter did all the research and helped with the buying. Here's one of the first reports Petter sent back to us in Finland: Tyvärr glömde jag att fota toan, men den sitter i aktern. Finns holdingtank med tömn