WELCOME TO THE GAASTRA E-STORE BLOG

The new PRO Col­lec­tion is build in a pro­fi­cient way with a result all weather con­di­tions can be con­cured from on-shore pur­suits to transat­lantic voy­ages. The evo­lu­tion of the GX-01 col­lec­tion fea­tures an out­stand­ing water­proof bench­mark equiv­a­lent to a water col­umn of 20,000 mm (Toray) and has been designed down to the small­est detail to ensure com­fort and pro­tec­tion dur­ing the most extreme sail­ing con­di­tions. With the use of Bemis tape as gar­ment fin­ish­ing GAASTRA PRO guar­an­tees wind and water will not obstruct your sail­ing per­for­mance.

The top 4 parameters

- riri zippers

- Toray: Water­proof breath­able fabric

- IBQ Kevlar reinforcement

- Bemis seam­tape: Pre­vent­ing seams from leak­ing water,  avoid­ing wind to come trough

Day 3 – Voy­age: Tener­ife to St. Martin

Left the Port of Santa Cruz, light 10-knot wind blow­ing, but heav­ier winds are expected. Slow start to our voy­age, but no one is com­plain­ing. The autopi­lot keeps a straight course, so no hand steer­ing required. We’re try­ing to save some energy for the test­ing miles ahead. Heavy rain all day. Squalls then light winds. Rocky night expected. Received a VHF call from another yacht last night relay­ing a mes­sage about a yacht in dis­tress. Promised we would keep our eyes open. No sign of dis­tressed yacht though. St. Mar­tin: first a shim­mery glow, now clearly vis­i­ble. Almost there! After so long at sea it feels great to make land­fall! With a good breeze blow­ing we can count on mak­ing steady progress. Looks like we will be arriv­ing dur­ing the day. St. Mar­tin here we come.

DAY2 – Voy­age: Mar­seille to Mallorca

We’re well under­way. Tran­quil morn­ing after a rocky night. Clear skies, light winds, easy sail­ing. At first we were relieved to see the wind ease and the rain
stop. Easy sail­ing is get­ting on our nerves now. We want to get to Mal­lorca while we’re still young! We might have to resort to motor­ing. Arrived at Real Club Nau­tico de Palma, pleas­ant tem­per­a­ture, light winds, calm sea. The warm cli­mate and excel­lent water sports facil­i­ties here attract many top yachts­men. They pre­fer Palma de Mal­lorca as their train­ing site. We plan on tak­ing some time to relax,  too. Lit­tle sail­ing today! Winds are very low. We decide to go out and do some swim­ming around the boat. With 31ºC and a bright blue sea, that’s no real punishment.

Have you ever made an expe­ri­ence like this? We are inter­ested in your sail­ing adven­tures. We invite you to com­ment on this post!

The new Gaas­tra Spring/Summer Col­lec­tion is now avail­able online! You might won­der where we get our inspi­ra­tion from. Fol­low us dur­ing the next days on our sail­ing tour through the transat­lantic ocean. The log­book entries show our expe­ri­ences. Every day serves as inpira­tion for a spe­cific part of the col­lec­tion. In that case let’s start with DAY1 — Voy­age: Cape Verde to Barbados

Sail­ing fast, large sea, hand steer­ing. Fly­ing fish every­where. Once out of the shadow of the island, the wind gets up. Large seas com­bined with an awk­ward cross-swell pre­vent the autopi­lot from keep­ing a steady course. We have to steer by hand. Passed the half-way mark! Thun­der­storm with tremen­dous light­ning, 20 knots of wind and 6 foot waves. Light­ning crash­ing into the sea on both sides. With our mast­be­ing the only poten­tial light­ning con­duc­tor for about a hun­dred miles in any direc­tion, we have to be care­ful. Progress about 100 miles. Quiet night fol­lowed by cloud­less sky. Still 233 nau­ti­cal miles to go. Get­ting closer to Bar­ba­dos, we can almost smell the rum punches. It’s get­ting hot­ter and hot­ter on deck. We expected to see more boats but we still have the sea com­pletely to our­selves. Tacked into deep water har­bour and tied up ready to check in. We’re finally there!

We are inter­ested in your opin­ion. How do you like the styles?What do you think about the inspiration?

We are look­ing for­ward to see­ing the sun again, feel­ing a nice warm spring breeze on our skin. We can’t wait to change our clothes against airy and coulour­ful fab­rics. For your imag­i­na­tion we do have some pic­tures from behind the scenes — Spring/Summer 2010! Enjoy! By the way: We are going to get the first clothes on Thursday!