VEGAS Newsletter's 2010

Just as in the days of the legendary spice island trade VEGA's movements are dictated by the winds of the monsoons. Sailing along routes unchanged for thousands of years VEGA makes her annual circuit loading her cargo of hope and assistance during one monsoon then delivering that cargo of farm, medical, and educational assistance when the monsoon changes.

North East Monsoon- November to April. During this Monsoon VEGA is in Thailand and Malaysia where we take part in sailing and other maritime events attracting attention to our humanitarian work and the needs of those we help. Generous individuals, clubs, and companies provide the supplies we load and help sponsor VEGA’s running costs. It also gives us the chance to enjoy some great sailing by doing Charity Sails.

South East Monsoon - June to September. During this monsoon we sail south delivering supplies and equipment we have gathered to the village schools, health posts, and orphanages we work with. To the rural people we assist these small shipments are life changing, they allow a farmer to grow food, a teacher to teach, or a medical worker to save lives. Here a small donation applied to real needs improves an entire villages economy.

Transition Months - Late April to early June & late September to early November. During a part of these months VEGA is in Singapore taking part in events such as the Boat Asia show and other activities where we meet the public and make important contacts for our work. These are also the months when we do our bi-annual maintenance.

(top) VEGA in 1894, (below) Mathilde

Ola H. Nerhus, one of Norway’s most famous boat builders, built ships from 1863 to 1906. His boats became known as “Hardanger Jachts” a name synonymous with immensely strong, swift sailing, vessels. The best of these were built at the Nerhuson shipyard in Ølve, Hardanger, Norway.

Ola apprenticed in the small shipyards of Ølve, famous for there shipbuilding from before 1600. In 1863, then 23 years old, he founded his own shipyard on Nerhus farm in Ølve. During his life Nerhus built over 100 boats. Several of which having carried cargos for over 100 years still survive, living testimonials to his skills and experience.

“He soon built an unrivaled reputation for strong well formed ships and high quality workmanship becoming a demanded shipbuilder, responsible designer, and surveyor for the most prominent “yards” in this region of Norway”. Historical documents state: “ Most of the Hardanger yachts sailed by the men of Tysnes were designed and built by Ola H. Nerhus”. (Tysnes had a large fleet at that time).

Ola also built the historical vessel “MATHILDE”, restored by Hardanger Fartøyvernsenter in Norheimsund in 1984-89.

Lars Nerhus

Historian and great great grandson of Ola Nerhus, has VEGA’s original half model and states, “VEGA” was well known as a great ship. She was a (true) Nerhus Hardanger Jacht, with that typical hull form and heart shaped stern.

“I was always told that “VEGA” was the best and strongest Jacht my great great grandfather ever built”!

The picture shows Lars Nerhus holding a painting of VEGA, done by his great grandfather Jens Nerhus in 1898. Behind him on his right is the boat yard and shed where VEGA was built.

Thank you for your interest in Vega's activities.

Our I m a g e P o r t f o l i o 2010 is available for

DOWNLOAD

All images and illustrations in this folder are available in high resolution or as vector graphics for download from our ftp site.

Please download the Portfolio for full instructions.

We also have image folders of the re-fitting and re-cycled wood, as well as many variations on most of the images seen here. For specific background text and quotes please contact us.

VEGA is more than just an important part of our maritime heritage she is also a catalyst for a wide variety of humanitarian assistance programs ranging from finding equipment for rural health posts and schools in developing countries to producing educational and public health campaigns while working with local counter parts to share her crews extensive communications skills and experience. One of the ways we manage to finance what we do is by providing intensive professional training and workshops as well as producing communication materials for other organizations active in the places we visit.

Behavior change communications and training Read more about »

Capt. Shane Granger who studied under Capt. Irving Johnston and Mr. Jim Richardson skippered the Class “A” Brigantine Stargate in the 1982 & 84 Tall Ships races.
He directed the restoration of the 1670’s replica Adventure and consulted on the Clearwater, Maryland Dove, Pride of Baltimore, the 1992 Columbus ships, and other historically accurate vessels. He also trained crews to sail several well-known historical replicas... Read more »

Meggi Macoun born in 1965 in Prague, studied graphic design in Germany. After a time in commercial advertising in Europe she moved to East Africa in 1991... Read more »

Joanne Har a Singaporean who first began working with the VEGA team in 2007 and has brought apart from her skills as sailing instructor, a wealth of technical expertise and training experience in graphic design, computer graphics, and web based media... Read more »

» View some samples of our work

We have been extremly fortunate to have the support, advice, and practical help of many people during the course of refitting VEGA, and would like to express our gratitude to all of them.

Capt. Shane Granger ... 1984 he returned to Europe becoming a successful advertising photographer. In 1994 he moved to East Africa to full fill his dream to work as bush pilot, during this time the idea developed to use his extensive commercial advertising experience for the benefit of communicating health and environmental messages to the rural population in East Africa. It was not long before he was being sent all over the world by WHO,UNICEF, BBC World Service Trust, and WWF to develop and produce behavioral change and educational materials. It was during this period that he and his partner Meggi Macoun developed their highly efficient community participation based training and production system.
In 2002 he and Meggi discovered VEGA, which together they have lovingly restored, this initiated a new phase in their lives employing VEGA as a platform from which to continue their work while expanding the scope to include various grass root organizations within isolated island communities.

From Africa to Mongolia and as far a field as the Solomon Islands young people have learned first hand from proven professionals the techniques of producing print, multi media, and web materials and have done so on actual projects that contributed to the needs of their countries. More than one modest budget designed to produce a few posters and a brochure have proven sufficient to not only produce those materials but also to train local counter-parts who could then take over there future management and produced a professional image bank of localized images that can be used for a wide variety of materials for years to come while training local photographers in the professional techniques needed to continue building those image banks.
The VEGA method is perhaps the single most cost efficient approach to behavioral change communications available. It is based on proven professionals who are ready and willing to share their experience with others. We are perhaps the only group around who consider putting our selves out of a job a major success. It is thanks to these programs that we can finance our humanitarian work and maintain VEGA in condition so she can last another 100 years.

Meggi Macoun ... There after a period away from her profession when she lived at the poorest village level at the Lake Victoria, Kenya she emerged determined to bring her extensive creative and professional skills to behavior change communications. Since then Meggi has planned national, regional, and global campaigns for WHO, UNICEF, WWF, BBC and many others. She was a driving force in developing the community driven communications system and the combined production / training programs that are so cost effective and successful.
VEGA proved a exiting challenge for Meggi, her first experience afloat came with a abundance of new skills to learn. Now after 8 years she manages to hand, reef and steer, remembers her knots & splices and knows where to find the cat heads, mizzen lizards and dead eyes. Meggi is a perfectionist who simply refuses to settle for less than the best and accordingly redesigned the interiors for VEGA.

Joanne Har

... considered by many to be one of Singapore’s top designers, Jo spends much of her year assisting with VEGA’s projects both at a distance, from Singapore, and on board the boat when we sail on our missions of mercy. Jo has helped us in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Fiji, and East Timor where her experience, especially her training skills, have made a major impact. She has helped plan and develop local, national and regional campaigns for WHO and UNICEF as well as others.

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands are one of the poorest, least developed, countries on earth. The people are amazingly friendly and trying hard to make a go of their small country with the lowest level of aid of any developing country. The Solomon’s consists of about 35 “big” islands and several hundred smaller islands, most of which are inhabited. These islands are spread over thousands of square miles of ocean making communications and transportation major problems for the islanders. Many of the islands have never seen a doctor and only see a nurse once every few years. ... Read more »

East Timor East Timor is a small island country that was born out of a long and bloody civil war. During that time almost all of its infrastructure was systematically looted and destroyed. This young country is poor beyond belief, yet trying hard to rebuild itself from the ashes of conflict. East Timor needs and deserves our help. Medical services are almost nonexistent outside of the major towns, where they are at best basic. There is only one old X-Ray machine in the entire country. Schools lack even the most basic of educational supplies. Orphanages struggle just to feed and cloth the war orphans... Read more »

Banda Islands, Indonesia The Banda Islands are a group of ten small volcanic islands spouting out of the deep Banda Sea, about 140 km south of Seram and 2,000 km east of Java, Part of the Indonesian province of Maluku UNESCO has named them as world heritage sites. These were the original "Spice Islands" that Columbus and others were seeking a route to. This year VEGA will be assisting with Operation Bhakti Surya Bhaskara Jaya where hospital ships from TNI Navy, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States along with VEGA will work together to implement Operation Bhakti’s health, infrastructure development, training, and delivery of Bhakti community educational materials, solar power systems, telecommunications systems, and water purification for the residents of these remote areas... Read more »

Solomon Islands Dr. Kafa is the only doctor for Isabelle province. Isabelle Island is a long thin mountain range with only 12 kms of roads, the rest are footpaths. The main means of transportation is by water and then walking. Visits to the out islands of this province are difficult due to lack of transportation. We have been actively supporting Dr. Kafa’s work for several years now and hope to be able to provide even more support this year. The small hospital on Isabelle needs almost everything that makes a hospital work. If you imagine a building with a few home made beds, tables and chairs you will be pretty close to the reality. There is no generator, no operating room lights, few if any medications, and even fewer instruments to work with. The laboratory has no microscope and the dental clinic uses tools purchased at a hardware shop and modified in a metal shop.

If you would like to help Dr. Kafa we have lists of his most important requirements. Please contact us via the support form for further details.

Project partners: Solomon Islands Ministry of Health, Isabelle Province Medical services, Waves of Mercy & Dr. Donald Kafa

Project beneficiaries: Buala Hospital, 5 small clinics, 15 Health posts and 12 small schools, all on Isabelle Island

East Timor ...yet there are dedicated people working hard to try and overcome these difficulties. By helping these people we can make a major difference in the lives of the whole population and above all the children.

From end May until early July we will be in East Timor meeting new people and learning about their work and needs. Several very worth while programs have already emerged and we have been fortunate enough to be able to render a modest amount of "Instant Assistance" . The picture on the right shows Joanne Har of Singapore presenting a symbolic bag of badly needed drugs to "Dr. Dan" head of Bairo Pite Clinic, while we also managed to find the books needed for the Bakhita Centre (Ermera District) to establish a local library and reading room. These are modest beginnings that we hope will soon grow as more of you begin to assist these and other worthwhile projects in East Timor. Keep an eye on this section as we will be updating it with the final list of organizations, contact people, and their needs very soon.

Targeted Projects: Community development & small scale agriculture, grass roots clinics, orphanages, small schools , village level health posts.

Banda Islands, Indonesia

This unprecedented effort is being made possible by the unselfish efforts of many private individuals, companies, and the Indonesian Government. As usual VEGA will concentrate on the schools and health services by providing basic supplies and equipment, but our real assistance is over the long term where our yearly missions can provide on going support. This year thanks to a kind donation by Jotun Paints of Indonesia we will also be able to provide the paint to refurbish many of the facilities we will be assisting. Thanks to another kind donation by Moduspec B.V. in Singapore we will also be able to provide basic educational materials to the more isolated rural schools.

Local organizers: Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Office of Marine and Coastal Community Development.

Targeted Projects: Community Development and Small Scale Agriculture, Schools, Clinics, Health posts.

Thanks to the following corporate sponsors VEGA is able to carry on her work. Without their generous assistance VEGA simply could not continue to operate.

Our gratitude to our most important supporters, the fabulous private individuals who unselfishly help support the needs of others less fortunate, as well as VEGA's modest running costs.

Thank you friends for all the help

If not otherwhise requested, we do not publish the names and addresses of our private supporters to avoid them being SPAMED with great offers - including strange lottery prizes and free bank accounts full of money, etc.