Hi, Johan. Happy New Year! (Again)
Good choice on the bulkhead hatches – especially if the Baltic climate varies between minus 26 degrees in winter to plus 26 degrees in summer. You'll need the ventilation. (In the UK the climate is typically less extreme but if we arrange things so as to be comfortable in cold, damp conditions I think you could say it's pretty well covered.)
26 below freezing is a bit much – even with Noomi Rapace to keep you warm! The lowest recorded here in Sherwood Forest was minus 14 and Maid Marion could barely cope with it.
As far as a new class name for Swedish CBLs goes .....
For the benefit of Swedish Cardy wearers the potted history of the name is as follows:-
1.Cardigan, (Aberteifi, in Welsh) the walled town, grew up around a Castle built in 1093 by the Norman invader Robert Montgomery on the site of an earlier settlement of pirates and fishermen. The intention being to protect himself from the locals, who were understandably annoyed at having a bunch of foreigners tell them who owned what. ( Most Welshmen still feel much the same.)
2.In 1176 the town host the first ever national Eisteddfod, but they didn't invite the Norman ruling class, strangely enough.
3.1199 town receives a Royal Charter. Locals not impressed.
4.1227 a weekly market starts, run by the townspeople, it continues to this day.
5.By the end of the 17th century Cardigan is the most important town and port in the area and so gives its name to the entire offshore region. Port subsequently silted up when falling exports of herrings, coal - and Welshmen – makes dredging uneconomical.
6.James Brudenell, (1797-1868), 7th Earl of Cardigan, inherited the title but actually lived in Leicestershire, I believe. He was a stereotypical English (not Welsh) aristocrat – deeply snobbish, blinkered to the point of apparent stupidity and incompetence but personally courageous and generous to a fault. Hence his association with the woollen garment introduced to save the lives of the poor bloody infantry sent to a winter campaign in the Crimea with tropical kit. (“Crimea? Somewhere near the Med I believe....like Cannes and...er... Biaritz..dontcha know. Corporal! Pack me sunhat!) No known link with Cardigan Bay either for the Earl or his woollen jacket!
7.Storm 19 dinghy developed by Matt Newland from the popular Storm 17, itself a re-think of Nick Newland's Storm Petrel.
8.2005. The S19 hull shape used in a new design with a cuddy cabin, twin boards and a balanced lug sail – the mast having moved forward to make more room in the cabin. These radical changes in rig required a new name, hence Cardigan Bay Lugger, a boat with a lug sail named for her place of origin.
If it hasnt got a lug sail its not a Lugger – and dont let Drascombe Gunter drivers tell you different. (Would you call a Mirror dinghy a lugger?) Drascombe Luggers havent had a lug sail since about 1966. The “Cardigan Bay” bit is still valid as a reference to its geographical origin (see Hastings Lugger, Yorkshire Coble, etc.) Why change it?
Anyway. If a cool Swedish pop group can name itself - without a hint of irony - after a garment usually associated with little old ladies (or Val Doonican) and name its first album (Emmerdale,1994) after a B list soap opera mostly watched by little old ladies, I can only worry about the prospect of the CBL being renamed by the slightly less cool Swedish boating community! Am I wrong, Johan?
Cheers,