Introduction

This blog

[Suomeksi]
Purpose of this blog is to tell about my Guyline 95 sailboat and fixes that I've made to it. This is not meant to be chronological log of things that I've made, but rather stories split to articles by subject. I may add more information to certain article, if it fits to that subject. I try to tell what, how and why I did. I always like to see what kind of fixes and solutions others have done, especially, if boat is same kind or mostly the same. I hope that others will get ideas or help from these articles. There may be better solutions for some issues and if you want to share some, you are free to add comments. While it may be too late for me to benefit from your input, it may have good value to someone else struggling with same issue.

Guyline 95

Guyline 95 is one of the sailboats that are designed by architect  Guy-Christer Lönngren. Each boat is of course own individual, but there are some major differences that I want to point out in this page. I am by no means any expert in this area, but I want to share what I have seen and heard.

Keel

Tilting keel

Keel is usually so called tilting keel that is tilted backwards hydraulically. It will give boat a draft that changes from 1.4m to 2.4m. There is hydraulic cylinder that pushes keel back and up (see picture). Cylinder shaft will be exposed to all sorts of sea growth, because cylinder shaft is pushed out when keel is up. To prevent sea growth attaching to shaft, keel should be kept down when ever possible. Cylinder shaft is made out of stainless steel so it does not care much of sea growth, but whenever shaft goes back in, seal is having hard time, if there is much growth on shaft. Especially when barnacles are grown on shaft, seal is put under serious stress.
Pressure to tilt keel up is made by manually operated pump, like in bottle jack and it is lowered down simply by its own weight, when pressure is released from cylinder. Pumping mechanism is usually located in pit on the floor just above keel. Everything is fit to that little pit except rod that is used to operate pump. But in very early versions, like mine, the pumping mechanism was located in some other place like in cabin under the sink. Some have also afterwards installed electric pumps to system, so that keel can be easily lifted or lowered from cockpit.
In very last production models keel was replaced by fixed non tilting keel.With fixed keel, draft is about 1,5m.

Mast

This boat has been available with at least two lengths of the mast 14.5 and 15.5 meters. My boats mast is 14.5m long. Boats with longer version of mast is also referred as HR type. Mast is keel stepped and goes little bit below waterline so total height from waterline is about 14 or 15 meters. There is also one version with big self supporting mast on bow, but I have never seen one except in promotional leaflets.

Stern

Boats basic length is 9.5 meters (thus type 95), but it has always been available with stern extension which extends boat length to 10.5 meters. My boat has this extension and it gives boat really good swimming platform. It is also said that it gives boat little bit more speed,  because it lengthens waterline. There are also versions with little portlight in the stern, but mine don't have it.

Steering

Boat has been available with tiller and rudder wheel steering. There is always rudder shaft visible on the deck even if boat has steering wheel so that emergency tiller can be attached to rudder shaft.  My boat has steering wheel and it is connected to rudder by cables, but there are other ways to connect steering wheel, so i guess it depends what original owner have wanted to install. Rudder blade is balanced so that it is little lighter to turn.

Interior

Biggest differences in the interior are around map table. Table itself can be constructed different ways, freezer that is under the table can be of different type and construction. All electrical wires usually come to this point behind table and fuseboxes and switches can be made in many ways. And if some upgrades are made to electrical systems or instruments, they focused on this area. Of course there might be some other visible differences, like mattresses can be totally different color and so on, but otherwise they are pretty much same construction. In my boat there was freezer box that had some peltier element as cooling system, I changed that to compressor type and remade the whole table.

Heating

As far as I know, original heating device has usually been Wallas 2400 paraffin model as it was in my boat. Wallas heater is made in Finland as the boat so it is obvious choice as a heater. It is located in middle of the boat inside toilet wall. Exhaust hose goes straight trough the hull to the deck and it has head that can be closed. It is hard to fit diesel version of the Wallas heater to same place without making modifications to surroundings. I have seen Wallas diesel version installed to rear section of the boat. I changed my heater to Safire 2600 model, because I was able to fit it easily to same palce as old heater.

Motor

Motor is often Yanmar 2GM which have two cylinders and about 15-18hp. I think that is always been original motor in these boats because motor housing (table in the middle) is very tightly built to fit over this motor. There are versions with fresh water cooling (2GMF) and raw water cooling. My boat has fresh water cooling version which is more suitable for salty oceans. Raw water cooling is usually used in lakes and also in Baltic ocean since it is not very salty ocean. Newer the less raw water cooled motor is more prone to corrosion and that why many raw water cooled motors have since changed to fresh water cooled models or even to different brand.
With this type of motors boat goes about 6 to 6.5 knots while good pace speed is about 4 to 4.5 knots, depending on head winds and so on. Original alternator in these motors gives only 35 Amp current which is pretty low for nowadays.

This boat
Made: 1985
Length: 9.5m + 1m stern extension
Draft: 1.4 to 2.4 m
Height: about 14m (Mast length 14.5m)
Width: 3m
Steering: Steering wheel (+ detachable tiller as backup)