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Around the World

A special project in my yacht building career has been Lennuk. Since 2000, the sailboat has circumnavigated 3 times. 

All photos courtesy of the Bråtveit family.

Some time in the 1990s, a few fellow Estonians came up with a bold idea to begin the new millennium with a trip around the world. Circumnavigation in the maritime life of open, democratic countries is nothing unheard of. But Estonia had recently regained independence after the Soviet occupation and the idea of carrying our flag around the world, the name of the project, made Estonians’ hearts beat faster. 

You can read more about Lennuk’s original journey at Estonian Flag Around the World.

Named Lennuk after the Estonian national epic “Kalevipoeg,” the sailboat was completed in June 1999. Lennuk was based on Finngulf 44. GRP parts were produced in Finland and everything else on Saaremaa, Estonia. 

You can find detailed information about the yacht at FINNGULF 44 Sailboat. 

Lennuk now belongs to a family in Norway. It is in good condition and holding up great after 20 years of active sailing and several journeys around the globe.

Thank you to the Bråtveit family for sharing snapshots of their adventures with Lennuk!

All photos courtesy of the Bråtveit family.

Lennuk

My hands were swollen and my body aching, but my mind was focused as I was working the wheel hard to prepare the boat to surf the next wave. It was nighttime and the lights on the horizon marked the first land of our home country. The winds of the North Sea blew us into safe harbour in Norway after having sailed the world for almost 10 years. It was magical. The boat somehow felt and looked different in our own waters. 

We bought Lennuk in Trinidad in 2008 from her previous owners who had been circumnavigating with friends from 2003. The couple had found her in Mallorca and the boat had made a mark. Of all the bluewater cruisers they had looked at, this was the one: strong, beautiful and well-prepared. 

Lennuk, a Finngulf 44, was completed in Estonia in 1999 and she set out to be the first Estonian boat to complete a sail around the world. It has been a joy to read and learn about those adventures and we are proud of her past. She seems to trigger emotions with everyone that has in some way followed or taken part in her adventures. 

She is now part of our family and we love her. Lennuk is harboured at Hovedøya in Oslo. We use her for family pleasure sailing in the Nordics. That is until we cannot stop her callings for larger Seas. Out on the ocean where she belongs. When that happens she will be on her fourth long journey home!

Kleng, Anne, Liva, Edgar and Miti Bråtveit 
Owners of Lennuk aka La Familia

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The 90s

I never planned for a career in boatbuilding, but life worked out this way. I was not a sailing aficionado, I used to be into computers instead. Then, I was asked to help with implementing some business software at a boatbuilding company.

Everything was possible in the 90s, at least in this corner of the world. I worked as a salesman and warehouse manager in the pharmaceutical industry and saw my employer go from 10 to 70 people in my 4 years with them. One of my duties at the company was to manage IT. We built a computer network and introduced accounting and inventory software. I was lucky to find young enthusiastic IT specialists for my team. We worked long days and on occasions, late nights. Some of those people later went on to become key persons at Microsoft Estonia.

One of the most challenging tasks for our IT team was to build a computer network connecting the 3 separate company locations at different ends of the town. Back then, no such solutions were readily available. I found people who were familiar with old Soviet military communication systems and figured out that the Tallinn underground was filled with communications cables. We ended up just connecting a few of them in the right places and the system started to work! I imagine those cables are still there today.

Visiting the Saare boatyard, I saw a bundle of intricate sailboat drawings laying on the table. I was sat down and given a job offer with two days to think about it. I asked to take the drawings home and spent the two days studying them with growing fascination. On the third day, I called the company manager and said I was accepting the job. The interest that sparked over those two days has been the foundation of my career for over 20 years now.

As I delved into yacht building, the mechanics of it kept getting more exciting. Soon after starting out, I was lucky to meet Stig Nordblad, my future mentor and good friend. Stig is the founder and former owner of Finngulf Yachts OY. After successfully completing the construction of a Finngulf 37, Stig decided to continue long-term cooperation with the Saare yard.

Around the same time, we began working with naval architect Kamu Strahlmann. A year and a bit later, we launched the first Finngulf 28e. In February 2000, Finngulf 28e was named Sailboat of the Show at the Helsinki Boat Show.

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Hello world!

Yacht building is a world of passionate, dedicated enthusiasts. It is not an industry where people simply expect to make a fortune. As a longtime friend once put it, “If you like money, go work in a bank.”

In this blog, I will try and reflect on my own experience in the yacht building industry and write of the beliefs and ideas that I have developed in over 20 years of constructing luxury craft. I will also share the story of a build coming to life.

In this blog, I will not talk much about the performance of yachts. I find it to be a given in the industry that sailboat users expect great performance. Every boater dreams of catching up with that sail they can spot of the horizon.

I am starting this blog as COVID-19 has changed the world in many aspects and thrust us all into unfamiliar territory. For most of us, the best strategy at this difficult time is to remain in the safety of our homes together with our families.

Our minds wander, of course. We are reading books, browsing websites and exploring ideas. We are making plans for the future. Perhaps also plans for post-pandemic quality time not too far away from home. Boating could be one option.