Hi Novara friends

We hope this finds you well at the end of this busy year. Here’s a copy of a newsletter we just sent out on what we’ve been up to on the Novara project over the past few months. Let us know if you’d like to be on the mailing list.

Where’s Novara?

Novara is in Dover, safely moored in the Granville Docks. We sailed her there in August after the mast refurbishment work was completed. We’ve been sailing her as often as we can, taking out crew to familiarise them with the Novara rig. Unfortunately, in November we had a major issue with the steering which has put us out of action. We’re hoping to have that reinstalled in the next couple of weeks.

What work are we doing on Novara?

In addition to the work on the steering, we’ve finally managed to solve one of the remaining issues with the masts. We discovered that the foremast heel bearing was too small leading to movement in the mast foot. We’ve now solved that with some cunning precision shims thanks to the efforts of Doug, Seb and Patrick. The last mast issue to resolve is wiring the steaming light. Sounds simple, but …

We’re also continuing with maintenance as well as training a crew who will be able to sail with us on our adventures in 2023. We’ve made progress with training crew on managing Novara’s aerorig, and with lots of jobs from repainting the antifouling and repairing bilge pumps, to getting seized sea cocks moving, repairing the Wempe ship’s clock and replacing electric junction box covers, etc.

Novara One Planet project

The highlight for our last few months was announcing our new Patron – Pippa Lady Blake. She’s such a wonderful asset for us – huge sailing experience and lots of connections to the sailing world. As we refine our mission, the NOP project also seems to be hitting the right note with people and organisations. We’re honoured to have received an Ocean Cruising Club Challenge Grant for the installation of solar panels on Novara. We’re also now working to recruit our first communities to work with on climate adaptation. Watch this space! Finally, with the help of Prof Bruce Glavovic, we’ve also developed our research agenda. The first research proposal is in for consideration – fingers crossed.

Networking and outreach

We’ve also trying to keep up the networking and outreach. Thanks to one of our wonderful volunteers we now have an active Instagram account (thank you Despina!). We’ve also had amazing connections to Sniffer, Creative Carbon Scotland, Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club, UK Polar Network and the National Maritime Museum and we’re looking forward to working with them in the coming year.

If you have any questions, or you’d like to get involved, let us know.

Veronica, Nigel and the Novara team

www.novara.world

https://www.facebook.com/NovaraSailing