About us and Yaghan

We, Nilla and Anders have been sharing life and sailing together since 2009, marrying in 2013. Our previous boat SY Ydalir, a Malö 45 Classic was built in Kungsviken, Orust, Sweden 2002 and Anders became the second owner in 2006. She has now got a home and new owners in Bogense, Denmark.

Nilla is inspired by the world of words and is teaching Germanic languages, currently in Klosters, Switzerland. Leaving the Swiss mountains in end of June, she will continue to teach German and Swedish online from the places offshore wherever Yaghan takes her. Nilla was born in Vörå on the west coast of Finland and lived many years in Düsseldorf, Germany until she moved to Anders in Zürich, Switzerland in 2011.

Anders was born in Hallstavik, on the east coast of Sweden, north of Stockholm. Anders is a physician who have spent most of his professional years as R&D leader in pharmaceutical industry and will now see what unique experience the next sea voyage can bring.

Since 2012 our base in Sweden is on the peninsula of Onsala south of Gothenburg. Our place is a so called a captain’s farm, originally built by Anders’s grand, grand, grandfather the vicar Magnus Ullman in 1820.

Sailing, not at least long-haul sailing, is a great way of connecting to people with different backgrounds through common interests and values.

Early 2020, when we were in the final planning stage of our first ocean crossing with our Malö 45 sailingboat Ydalir II, we were given the opportunity to meet and connect with lovely Helen and Arne Mårtensson, who generously shared experiences and advice from a decade and over hundred thousand nautical miles with Yaghan, their beautiful and so well equipped HR62.

In the autumn of 2021, we were into our second season in the Caribbean. As most of the Pacific region still suffered Covid lockdowns, we had postponed our planned passage through Panama. At this time, we got a phone call from Arne and Helen who informed us that they had decided to sell Yaghan and kindly offered us to consider the option to buy her, before they publicly would announce her fore sail. This was an offer we were not able to resist and in January 2022, she formally become ours. Yaghan was berthed in Valencia, Spain and we did our premier sea test there together with Helen and Arne in March 2022.

Now, more than a year later, Yaghan is still temporarily based in Valencia, and we have spent most of our spare time with her on Costa Blanca and around the Balearic Islands, learning to know her and all her equipment and technology, quite often with Arne and Helen guiding, supporting and explaining over phone or facetime.

In the meantime, we upgraded the battery systems to Mastervolt Lithium. Hans Rutgersson, our stellar marine electrician and Mastervolt guru, travelled by car and brought all his tools, all the way down to Valencia from Gothenburg, Sweden and spent two weeks on board Yaghan here in Marina Valencia Mar in Spain.
With assistance of Joaquin (see below) he installed a pallet load of 12 and 24V Mastervolt batteries, chargers, cables, switches and boxes…

Through common friends, we met Joaquin, an experienced yacht master, despite his young age. Joaquin, together with his business partner Nieves, had recently founded the services company Sunsail Solutions (www.ss-solutions.es), providing their own knowledge and knowhow, along with an impressive and reliable network of technical experts. Joaquin and Nieves have not only helped us with so many boat projects, updates and upgrades but have also become dear friends and helped us to feel welcome and included in beautiful Valencia.

With great support from Joaquin and friends, we have serviced, engines and winches, done the rigg checks, serviced the safety equipment. In the beginning of May we got the marine version of Elon Musk’s Starlink installed and connected and are now enjoying high speed broadband onboard.

Thus, finally we start to sense ready to start the next phase of our sailing adventures. The plan is to leave Valencia by end of July, towards the south of Spain, Portugal to Madeira and the Canary Island before starting an Atlantic crossing early November, most likely with Barbados as first destination.

Thus, we now feel ready to hit the “seven oceans” onboard Yaghan.