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Kari Kuukka Photography

Use the controls, your mouse or your finger to move the images.  | Käytä hiirtä tai sormea kuvan liikut­teluun ja katseluun.

Princess Sophie

Vindö 452

Princess Sophie is a classic sailboat – a Vindö 452 – and our home for the summer months. I spend about 100 days each year sailing her.

Fully renovated with lots of love and all the money I have been able to spare. As far as I know, she is the last Vindö of its kind ever built .

Solid and seaworthy – built in Sweden – these boats are legendary having crossed the Atlantic and sailed around the globe numerous times.

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Renovating Princess (2006–2008)

We bought Princess in Germany and sailed her home ourselves. In retrospect it is a small wonder we survived the trip as our experience at the time was limited to coastal sailing. For instance, we had a leeward main stay come loose in strong sidewind between Åland and Gotland…

The images of Emma – barely two years old at the time – are from the island of Utklippan south of Karlskrona in Sweden

A friend of mine intro­duced me to Jyrki Ikonen and his small shipyard near Loviisa, eastern Finland. He agreed to do the renovation and with his wife Lotta they did an amazing job.

We replaced the deck, the cockpit, handrails, and the forward facing part of the cabin as there had been a leak there.

Some new designs were intro­duced, such as the mahogany board surrounding the cabin – as the seam between teak and mahogany there is notoriously weak in Vindö.

We were extremely happy with the quality of work and Princess has remained in their loving care ever since every winter.

Maintaining Princess means some work but much less than people are bound to think. Along the years we have replaced the engine, installed warm running water, totally renovated the elect­ronics (she has double naviga­tional systems both inside and outside with dual VHS-radios, AIS-trans­ponder, EPIRP) among others. The hull is covered in epoxy and then painted six layers. Annual service includes ceramic protection for the hull, antifouling paint in the bottom and light sanding with one layer of fresh varnish for all the mahogany and iroko.

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