I've never had a humble opinion.
If you've got an opinion,
why be humble about it?

-Joan Baez-

Honest Opinions

When I got to Finland, I was a one-day hero. I had my face on the evening news and news papers. I had a rusty little boat, a beautiful cat Charlie, 36 euros in my pocket and a dream fulfilled. Well, half of a dream anyway. Inspiring. As Annina and I started to get serious about our departure - Aliisa's continuation of the circumnavigation - we did our best to milk the benefits of the fact that I was still writing to a sailing magazine. We didn't really get serious about it, and most of the sponsors came through my job at the largest marine wholesaler in Finland, Maritim.

Part of me felt embarrassed about being sponsored. After all, I have begged for goods and people have given some, feeling sorry for me? The idea(l) is of course to have a "partnership" with a brand, but the reality is, that a lot of companies just give stuff, because it's in their budget to do so. Regardless of the motives of the brands, companies and people who have supported Aliisa, I will give an honest opinion and a fully open review of the products that I'm using - paid in full, sponsored with a discount or given to me for free. I owe it to the world and I owe it to the few that still read this website.

(Products added to the list in March 2009, but you'll have to wait for the reviews. Proper testing takes time...

Lets start from the sponsors

Aliisa has been motoring against the wind for the whole Baltic Sea and then motoring again through the Dutch canals. In between, we have been plugged in. Surprisingly not, there's not much to say about Exide. They're still full.

We have a third party insurance with Tapiola. I haven't caused any damage to anyone yet, so obviously not much to tell. Tapiola was kind enough to buy a life raft for us too, but I hope I won't have to include that in my product review, ever.

Suunto logo

I've always been a Suunto man. Every Finn living overseas long enough is. Suunto belongs to the family of Finnish icons: Nokia, Rapala, Kone, Sauna... I was begging Suunto for a sponsor deal, but with no success. The sales manager - a yachtie himself - took a pity on me and sold me the much wanted steering compass half price. I've worn Suunto on my wrist since late 80's when I was the proud owner of the world's most advanced dive computer and the Suunto Yachtsman has served me well for the whole voyage from Australia to Finland. I've used the compass in my watch to take bearings of ships and to work out if they're in a collision course. I'm always aware of the weather changes with the barometer. Serviced once - $100, outch! - and hard worn in all conditions.

Simrad Logo

Now we're in business. Two of the most important machines in Aliisa - after the faithful Yanmar 3JH3E - are called "Simrad". I might be a little biased or perhaps a little naive, but I do love the fact that in every Simrad machine (Wheel pilot, electric compass, control unit, rudder feedback, computer etc. all have stickers that say: Made in Norway, Made in England or Made in Denmark.

I've only had Raymarine autopilots before, getting used to steer by hand when the going gets tough, as well as listen to a whinging and whining chinese motor desperately trying to turn the wheel with a frictionless belt. I might be a bit unfair here, but the truth is: Simrad makes better autopilots. (And burgers are better in Hungry Jacks)

Well, we'll put the gear in a proper test sometime soon, but so far in the worse of conditions - including 30kn downwind and 30kn headwind, both under sail and power, both Simrad machines (AP24/DD15/RC42/AC12/RF300 + WP32) have worked wonders. Quiet, strong and disregarding all motion of the steel hull.

I have mixed feelings about the paint job. In all paint jobs, the prep-work is more than half the result. We did our grinding as soon as we had a few hours of above +5 C temperatures in Helsinki. We applied the paint as soon as we had a few hours of the same. The undercoat was an unknown factor, but given that it had been there for 25 years, I felt It is as good as steel. We put 2-3 coats of International Interprotect 2-pack epoxy primer, followed by 3 coats of Perfection 2-pack polyurethane deck paint.

Not only does the paint seem to be intolerant of mechanical impact, dirt sticks to it like ... (I've been looking for a good metaphor for this for 10 minutes now. Now wonder this site is out of date. Someone help?) The bastard deck is dirty all the time and no amount of scrubbing gets it clean. So, I'm not too impressed with International Perfection, used with Halkanix anti-skid additive. On the bright side, the International Brightside (ha ha ha) is sticking to the hand rails and continues to be my favourite top coat from International. Also the Epoxy Resin and Epoxy kit and glue are, have always been, my first choise. Pitty about the deck. Maybe we'll wash it with a fresh coat of white paint...