The Crew
Chief sailor and blog administrator – Kirsten Folkersen. Here with junior sailor, Nellie
Skipper, writer, photographer – Per Westergård – he thinks it’s going to be fantastic
The permanent crew consists of two people: Kirsten and Per. Regularly this crew is extended with family or friends.
Per Westergaard is skipper. He was until recently the chief editor and director of a number of Danish media, journalist by training and he himself believes that he looks best at the helm as the one that keeps overview and decide what needs to be done. When it comes to actual physical work he seems to be a bit reluctant.
Compared to our blog / website it is Per who write reports and take a good part of the pictures.
Skippers wife, Kirsten Folkersen, is the one, who manage the majority of the physical effort. It is she who go on deck and hoist sails. It is she who lowers and raises the anchor or prepare the boat with fenders and ropes when mooring in a port. Kirsten was until recently headmaster at a primary school in Odense, she is a qualified teacher.
Compared to the website it is Kirsten who upload reports, place pictures and get it to work graphically. Also she takes pictures.
None of us grew up with sailing. We bought when we were in the early 20’s, a small, used Wayfarer sailling-boat, got a place in Roskilde harbour, borrowed at the library a book about sailing, and then we went out doing all the mistakes, that can be committed. We capsized, we were grounded, we even one day had to leave the boat in the backyard of a coastal villa, then we could not quite find out, how we should act in relation to the wind.
We were definitely not good. But we were bitten.
Later we joined a group of people, that on a cooperative basis sailed and maintained a ketch from 1913. Still later we owned for years, along with a friend, a Swedish-built 30-foot Albin Ballad. And then came Ronja. Ronja has been with us for more than 12 years.
Ve write these stories on the fly, while sailing. I the background we have a son, Lasse Westergaard Folkersen, and a daughter, Emilie Westergaard Folkersen, who in their respective areas of competences helps us with the blog.
Nellie, four years, is the perfect sailor. She loves scrubbing the decks, wash the dishes and polish the rail. What more could you possibly ask for?
Per recently retired from his job. Now focusing part of his year on ice-cream, sailing and explorations
Kirsten is now retired from her job. Giving time to more sailing.
May we present: Ronja, a 36 foot yacht type Malö-36 built in 1998.
She was built in Sweden on the island of Orust, where there is a longstanding tradition for boat building, as also Halberg Rassy-, Vindö- and Najad yachts are being built on this island.
Ronja is solid Swedish crafts. With beautiful lines. We think.
Expressed in meters, she has a length of 11.35, a width of 3.48 and a draft of 1.79. The engine is a Yanmar diesel 47 hp
