The Story so far!

Iris II was built in 1905 to Herreshoff's new Universal Rule by J.A.Östman of Nynäshamn.
She rated as an R9. She was successful during her early racing career with overall victory in Sandhamn 1907. Over the years she has been also classed as a 75 sq.m., and is currently rigged as a 55 sq.m.

 Here she is - second from the right - with her original gaff-rig off Sandhamn in 1906.

Fast forward to today: She came into the ownership of Oscar Almgren via the Skerry Cruiser Restoration Fund http://www.sskf.se/rf/- who had found her "abandoned" in a yard. Oscar put the project on the back-burner, needing to concentrate on business and his new home on Gotland, and perhaps a little trepidation as to how to proceed. Eventually she came to the top of the "to-do" list - primarily because of the date.
In 1912 the Olympic games were held in Stockholm. The sailing took place in Nynäshamn and Sandhamn, with the official medal races in International Meter boats and an International Olympic Regatta for all comers. IrisII raced in the regatta, but didn't do well.
July 2012 Nynäshamn will host a Jubilee Regatta for the Olympics... Suddenly she needs to be finished and sailing.
Oscar contacted me, and I jumped at the opportunity to oversee this project. Basically six months to re-build her. Of priority is structural integrity, cosmetics come second if we have time and budget. She needs work, but it is doable....

The rest of this blogg will be pictures and details of significant moments of the restoration... If you don't like dry, technical boat stuff... Might not be for you! ;-) But there may creep in some family pictures and stuff. Any comments concerning technical aspects will be greatly appreciated - the more information the better, we learn new things everyday!