Astra truly is a star,here she is sailing on Table Bay,the man smiling is certainally her once owner,the late George Meek,who the other man is I have no idea,if anyone knows,please advise? Astra is now seventy four (74) years old.
This is one of the two ultra rare pictures of Astra that have not been seen for many years,the basin they are sailing in is what is now the RCYC Small Craft Basin,which is now jam packed with marinas and yachts,the large yacht behind may be Halloween?
That's Trevour the second partner in the Astra progarm waving,Doug is the skipper,the event was the Opening Cruise at HBYC (why do we not have these anymore?)
The finished job,ready to sail.
Oscar,one of two guys who eventually took the Astra program over,sanding International Paint etch primer EGA Intergard,this is an epoxy base coat and bonds 100% with the Shell Chemicals 816 epoxy underneath it,Oscar was soon showing me his bleeding fingers as the day went on!
Mike stripping the original sixty three years old coach roof,we then skinned it with a layer of quality ockume marine grade BS 1088 plywood and and our Shell Chemicals 816 epoxy,with International Paints Interthane top coats.International Paints donated all paints to this project,many thanks to manager Tim Woodburn and his helpfull staff with this project.Commercial Lumber cc donated all other materials and labour.
I am told the original Tumlaren drawings are kept in the Swedish Naval Archives,we could make a kit set of this design easy enough.
When Knud Reimers designed his Tumlaren,it saved his financial status and started a cult following, its thought that over one thousand may have been built,registers for them exist in many countries outside Knuds home county of Sweden.Astra,sail number 8,was given to me for free by the FBYC Astra trustees, on the understanding I repair her and so it came to be, the whole story was published at Duckworths Magazine,so I will not repeat myself here but two new pictures have just surfaced,so this blog is a world first showing of them.
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