Cool Boats: Blunt 22 - Weerlicht

Hans and Margreet Arends blended a Jewell and a Swallow into the Blunt22 for coastal trips (and the Raid Extreme).

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What triggered you to build your boat?
Margreet and I wanted a boat for coastal cruising and longer trips.

Which existing designs inspired or influenced you?
The inspiration for the Blunt 22 one-off came from the Vivier-designed Jewell and the Bayraider Expedition built by Swallow Boats.
A friend and I examined both designs and added some ideas of our own.
Essential data: LOA:650cm, Beam:220cm, Draft:30cm - 160cm, weight:650kg (ready to sail including engine).

How did the design evolve?
We decided to build the hull in epoxy woodcore with a cedar core and to build deck and cabine from foam sandwich carbon.
All spars for the gunter ketch rig and yawl are carbon.
We have a retractable 4HP outboard in a well and auxiliary power through a battery-powered electric drill with a propellor.

How did your boat meet your expectations?
After christening the boat we had a couple of outings to test the new boat.
During our first tests with a force 3-4 we regularly clocked 6.4kn upwind which was what we expected.
We haven't kicked the accelerator reaching and running because we had not yet defined where the gennaker cleats and blocks should go.
We had some teething troubles and fast repairs on the first day. Fortunately everything held together on our second outing.

Where will you sail or are you sailing?
We plan to take Weerlicht to the Wadden Sea, Denmark, France and the Ijsselmeer.
But inland waters are not off limits because lowering and setting the rig is really easy (although there is a lot of sail to handle!)

What is your favourite picture of building or sailing your boat?
Here are some early pictures of Weerlicht when she was finally ready.

How did the boat get its name?
Weerlicht is the flash you see just before your hear the thunderclap.

Any new developments?
I asked Molenaar Sailmakers to build a gunter rigs on steroids. This generated so much power that some controls stretched and broke.
With that sorted, "Weerlicht" proved very stable and easy which is a good sign for our future trips.