Baltic Ocean Racer

Sven Östenson of Oxelösund, Sweden, bought this ocean racing yacht for about US$700 when he found it lying derelict in a local boat yard. He writes the boat, a Lage Eklund design, has a rounded turtle-deck, which leaked and caused a great deal of rot. Östensson spent two years restoring her--giving her new deck beams, planking, rudder, and sheerstrakes--before launching her near his home. Sweden is a boating paradise, he adds, with 50,000 islands along the coast and most of them are uninhabited, so it is possible to go ashore almost anywhere.