Why I'm Following Sven Yrvind

He uses his boats as examples of his philosofy. His latest boats have more or less failed, as a manifestation of an ideal, they suck.

 

Oh, btw, less important quarrels about his intentions and such set aside, he is gonna be hit hard in the coming hours. Wish him luck everyone!

 

I'm fascinated by Sven's boat ideals, I'm glad he tries them out, and reports about it.

 

Oh absolutely agree. I just wish he would drop the manifestos and judging peoples choises of life, and focus on his passion. That I would actually support, but I will not partake in a venture that has an agenda such as his.

His willingness to try out stuff, fail, and mostly admit where he went wronga are the reasons that keep me interested in his trials. For example the rig on previous ExLex, I absolutely loved it, can't remember right now if he reported on how it functioned in practise, but it would be nice to try out something like that in a proper scale and variation (higher masts, a contemporary sail).

 

There is now a new update from Sven at Www.yrvind.com

So much going through my mind after reading it, I'll have to address it a bit later. Can't hold it in anymore...

 

Thanks for alerting us to this update.
I must admit that I do not have a huge amount of sympathy for Sven.
I hate to think how much he has spent on building this current Exlex boat (or the various previous Bris boats) - but I am sure that he could have built a nice little cruising yacht that could actually make way to windward for the same cost as the present boat..
Or bought a nicer, bigger second hand cruising yacht for the same money.
But that would just be following the herd mentality, and I can see that Sven is very much unorthodox and wanting to do his own thing.
Good luck to him, but the outlook does not look good - I think the gods are trying to tell him something, and he should take stock of what this message is.

 

I'm 100% with you mate. He's just going nowhere. Actually, and figuratively.

 

When Sven got to sea for the first time with his first Bris she leaked, didn't point, and wouldn't sail.

He patched the then new boat up, and gave her a keel, and a traditional yacht rig, and got famous with it.

Over the years he has lost his willingness to adapt to the laws of physics, and only follows his dreams.

 

I was about to write that I wonder if, his age permits, he will eventualla end up building a normal boat with some clever gadgets of his, but I'm afraid you are right A II.

Sven reminds me of my father in law, may god bless his immortal soul. Now there was a guy that just did not bend. He did stuff his way, and was very happy doing so.

 

My in-laws couldn't have children, I believe. Maybe I'm like Sven in that . .

 

Re post #38: - - BRIS I, 1971- 1983, Long 6.1 meter, 20’ Beam 1.72 meter

 

There is an excellent rule of thumb for inventors and innovators: "If you think you have come up with something ingenious and groundbreaking, you haven't"

 

Much as I dislike the direction Sven has gone, it is not only engineers and scientists who can have good ideas.
Everyone should be given a chance and encouraged.
On the other hand, my experience with engineers is that only 1 of 10 "new" ideas really works.
So a great deal of peoples work is a very minor improvement if that.
But lots of people working can make progress, if they recognize failures, and share successes.

Perhaps the best we are seeing is sharing failures, so others can make progress.

I hope he survives it.

 

Pretty damning huh ? The truth is that engineers are like doctors, lawyers and any other kind of professional out there. Some of them cant tie their shoelaces, but have a piece of paper on the wall that says they they are an engineer. Its the usual bell curve of capability. Some of the best end up in places like JPL, the "real" NASA engineers. Not the highly political operations people. Some of the best work for other successful firms, including defence, aerospace and Automotive. Companies like CAT have an excellent engineering fellowship system, lacking in many other companies where the only career prospects are in management. In automotive, there is still room for innovation but accountants tend to rule and there is no telling if your exciting project is going to be bookshelved in the next 3 months because of some financial reshuffle that needs to be done to impress stockholders at the next quarterly financial report. A lot of the time, no matter how promising something looks, if there isn't a paying customer asking for the widget "right now", no money will be invested in it whatsoever. I have been working automotive, commercial vehicle and off road machines now for going on 22 years, so I have seen many of the "cycles" that I mentioned. But to say that nobody is developing anything anymore is absolute BS. What innovators have to do today is not only come up with a good idea, but also the entire production plan and manufacturing processes that allow a product to be built in high volume production for a cost of $150 where the existing products on the market may cost $1500 and be 3x the size, and possibly not be durable either...

 

That might not even get it in military aerospace.
If you don't have a new airplane contract you don't get to do "new" design, and usually improvements are not welcomed, since it costs so much to implement.
And the Gov really doesn't care about reduced price, even though there is plenty of lip service.
While you are doing new design, the schedule is so compressed, there is no time to do much but get something out that probably will work.
Fixing all the mistakes takes up all the creativity.
F-in depressing.