Posted on 12/06/2014 12:34:50 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
Sven Yrvind, a 75-year-old Swedish boat builder, designer, sailor and writer, has something to say about life. He’s chosen to communicate this philosophy through taking on tough challenges. Faced with a future of scraping by on a crap pension, surfing channels in a retirement home, Sven had different ideas.
“TV is not for me. I must have something to live for, problems to solve. Most people misunderstand life. Money does not make you happy. Comfort does not make you happy. It is only by using energy you create more energy and it is that surplus of energy that makes you happy and healthy.”
Sven has lived this quote. A recent 45 day trip took him across the Atlantic in a 16 foot self-made boat. He’s been building and navigating small boats around the world, for 50 years, including treacherous, stormy waters like those near Cape Horn at the southern tip of Chile.
For his next trip, Sven is building a 10 foot boat to circumnavigate the globe nonstop – a 30,000 nautical mile voyage that will last 600 days. Some have called this a suicide project but with more than 50 years of experience designing, building and sailing small crafts, Sven has proven smaller is better. A smaller boat, designed to be indestructible, has less forces acting on it then a larger boat. It lives among the waves, instead of doing battle with them.
Because he’s making the trip nonstop, he’s also bringing along 800 pounds of food and 200 pounds of books.
(Yes, he also plans on bringing a tablet ) He will power these devices, along with modern navigation and communication equipment, with a pedal power generator. His 10 foot boat is built like a space capsule. It will capsize, it will pitchpole, but it will always come back up, much like Sven Yrvind. If he completes the journey, it will be a world record for a small vessel.
Sven is always launched his expeditions with a minimum of financial resources. Like a modern-day Thoreau, he wants to send a message about our excessive, consumption driven culture that takes way more than its fair share of the world’s natural resources.
Here are just a few:
Play the long game. I loved Sven’s comments about not wanting to end up with other pensioners in a home watching TV. At 75, he is playing the long game, upping the ante. It would be much better to leave this earth doing something you love, and trying to set a world record, than in front of the TV.
Live an interesting life. In addition to launching global sailing expeditions, and designing small boats, Swen also tracks his progress through his blog and has written four books.
Live lean, consume less, enjoy life more. Sven’s story resonated with me. If one man can live in a 10 ft. boat for 600 consecutive days at sea, then surely we can all strive to live on fewer resources and material goods than we do today.
Choose experiences over stuff. Give up some creature comforts, step away from the flatscreen TV, go out and experience life. You don’t need to set any world records, it’s the experience that counts.
Have a quest. This could be the true secret to longevity versus a lot of the pills, powders and fitness miracles promoted today. Sven’s world record quest requires he stay on top of his game mentally and physically with a daily practice of hiking, kayaking, reading, and working on his sailboat.
If you want to learn more about Sven’s journey and his life, check out his blog www.yrvind.com. As I looked through the photos of his amazing boat, I thought this would make one hell of a #kickstarter project! Check out a 3-D model of his boat here.
The Frug.
I don’t think you’re correct on the water requirement.
I allowed a gallon per day. Your 1/2 gallon might be ok for water only, but not IMO if all food is dehydrated, as it obviously is if he’s surviving on a little more than a pound per day.
I’ve had some experience in food and water requirements due to experience in desert backpacking. I used to carry a minimum of 2 to 3 quarts per day, but that was generally with undehydrated food.
In hot or dry weather much more.
Here’s a water requirements calculator.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/humanh2owater.html
I’m not familiar with water purification equipment of the type you mention. There is a feedback factor here. The more power needed to purify the seawater, the more he’ll need to work to produce the power, which means the more water he’ll need.
I’ve read Kon-Tiki, and from their experience it looks like, at least in tropical waters, he won’t have any problem with getting enough food to survive.
There are quite a few ways to process seawater with small equipment by osmosis, distillation and condensation. A search of the topic can yield some interesting reading.
That was my first thought.
Money buys you a roof over your head, shoes for your feet, clothes on your back, food in your stomach, hot water from a pipe in the wall, not to mention clean water you can drink.
People who have all those things all the time, like most of us do, take them for granted.
This guy has enough money to do these things. Good for him. Living more simply is good. But lets toss the preaching in the trash. I don’t want any lectures on how bad money is from a guy who can build lots of boats, stock them and sail them all over the world.
That takes money.
I think it was the “comfort does not make you happy” quote that really irritated me.
Tell that to someone who has to endure bitter cold with a blanket. I’ll bet they would be damned happy to have a space heater and fuel or electricity to run it.
I like what the guy is doing. I don’t appreciate at all the way it is conveyed.
A gallon a day would be great, all I’m saying is that he can get along on less, and he might have to.
Yes, operating a manual RO unit requires energy throughput. If it didn’t we’d have free-running RO plants all over the world making the deserts bloom. And yes, that will require work and produce perspiration, increasing water need. The equation must favor producing more water than is used or it wouldn’t make the slightest sense. Your points are valid.
I’d agree that he ought to design and install a system that can produce 128 fl oz per day and hope to get a good fraction of that in practice. This journey won’t be either easy or comfortable, to say nothing of the risk of the unforeseen. I wish him luck.
I was enjoying reading about this man until I came to the sentence that had this stupid thought in it:
...our excessive, consumption driven culture that takes way more than its fair share of the world’s natural resources.
Hey! I have a major crush on The Most Interesting Man in the World. And he looks much better than this geezer.
“I was enjoying reading about this man until I came to the sentence that had this stupid thought in it:
“...our excessive, consumption driven culture that takes way more than its fair share of the world’s natural resources.
.................
Eh, I’ve come to realize I don’t agree with every idea everyone has to offer, but I find him an intriguing person.
Your tale of hiking was very interesting to me. Thanks for making my day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.