BOAT BUILD
Words by Simon Tytherleigh
Only for
Nutters
Part 17
Simon Tytherleigh continues his Kurt Hughes 32’ catamaran build
“Tis the season for excuses, tra-la-la-la-laa…!” There
might take if they were working in perfectly
temperature- and humidity-controlled
are so many reasons not to be building the boat during
conditions with all materials ready to hand
the Christmas season it is remarkable that anything has
and no deviations from the plans, no
processes going wrong, no time for head-
been achieved at all. I have written before about the cold scratching or re-design. Our four years and
up at the workshop slowing everything down and making
9000+ hours include lots of unpredictable
variables, some of which have not been
short days necessary just so I can get home to thaw out. related to the project itself. No doubt
The watery sun drops below the hills around 4pm and
temperature and humidity have played their
part in slowing the process down, but so
the temperature plummets. Time for a cup of tea and a
have available manpower, the re-design, the
mince pie!
learning curve with its inevitable mistakes,
the addition of lots of details not in the
original plan, (e.g. building a mast, adding
a big cabin-roof), and taking time off for
ut there is one inescapable,
Christmas. If I became depressed by the
B
of the list. Then launch the boat! Simple,
blindingly-obvious truth
except that everyone (hoping to be able to
seeming lack of progress in the early stages,
about boatbuilding: it
fill in their new diaries with a party to look
now I am resigned to its unevenness and
doesn’t happen if you
forward to) now asks “When will the boat
less bothered about the finish date.
are not there! There is simply no
be launched?” The lame response of “When
substitute for putting in the hours. Of
it’s ready!” is not good enough anymore,
So I fill in the months and weeks on
course one can work quickly or slowly
as I have already declared this must be the
the wall planner with more hope than
depending on ability and inclination
final year of building
expectation and dream about a summer
and standards of workmanship, but
and it is becoming
day, a large crane
you have still got to be there.
increasingly
apparent that the
To plan or not to plan? boat is getting to the
I am never more aware of this than at the stage when it looks
“
the project is so
and some bottles of
champagne! Which
far adrift from
brings me back to
the here and now –
the designer’s
turn of the year, when I take down the old like it might actually
doing as much work
year planner with its blocked-out plans for float. prediction of 1800
as possible during
doing this or that section at the right time,
the cold months
and the crossings-out of the things that But the project is so
hours to complete so the summer
didn’t quite get done. I put up the empty far adrift from the
that there must be
launch becomes a
new planner with the delicious prospect of designer’s prediction
reality. For once my
all the days of the year laid out, tempting of 1800 hours to
something to learn
intentions seem to
me to start giving the new year some complete that there
from it.
be working out –
shape, and above all to work out how to must be something
get this project to a conclusion. to learn from it.
Undoubtedly anyone planning to build their
In some ways it is easy: just keep on own boat should take heed. The designer ”
must have been the
planning! I reckoned
on doing the interior
during January and February, and here
working at all the jobs that need doing was very probably giving the number of
we are ready to roll. With some floodlights
and sooner or later I will get to the end hours an experienced team of professionals
and a heater it should be fairly cosy, so
on we go. There is a lot of cabinetry that
18  MULTIHULL REVIEW : JANUARY 2009
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