Ten (feeble) excuses

With no posts for almost three weeks, I feel obliged to update this blog. The project had been progressing quite well, but then things slowed down again. I find myself repeating to Tom something I read on another boatbuilding blog – “Boats don’t build themselves ya know”.

Without the usual tropical humidity to blame (May to September is our dry season), I am trying to understand what things prevent or discourage us from firing along at the same pace maintained by a lot of other boat builders. This is the best I can offer:

1. Visiting catamarans

   This is our favourite boatbuilding distraction. As we have followed the project “Building the Cat” and subsequent cruising adventure “Wendera’s Travels” (links in the sidebar), we were very pleased when Paul and Missy contacted us via this blog to arrange a get-together. They visited our build last week, and yesterday we had the privilege of visiting their beautiful boat, a Spirited 380. I was awestruck by the quality of their workmanship – the perfect paint finish, the lovely rounded edges, the timber floor and trim, the extremely practical galley, and of course, the ingenious wine-rack.

   It was a thoroughly enjoyable, but brief time with Paul and Missy, and I feel disappointed that our paths will probably not cross again.

   

   

2. Illness

   Very little building occurred for two weeks in May whilst our son was ill with pneumonia. As soon as he recovered, Tom got a bad bout of seasonal flu, and was bedridden for two weeks.

3. School holiday induced laziness

   It was so easy to fall into the cycle of late nights and sleep-ins with Atticus and August on holidays for a month.

4. Noise restrictions

   We have a self-imposed rule of limiting the use of power tools when neighbours are home. Lately the neighbours on the “boat-side” of the house have been doing a lot of socialising on their verandah which is only metres from where we work. Yesterday, feeling frustrated that he hadn’t been able to sand or rout for several days, Tom moved our dinghy (on a trailer) out from a carport on the other side of our house, and set up a work area there. The neighbouring house on this side is currently vacant, so Tom didn’t feel so guilty.

   

5. Designing components

   The price we pay for having total freedom with the design of everything above bridgedeck floor level in an Oram catamaran is that we really do have to design it ourselves. Recent challenges have been determining the most appropriate way to mount, operate and secure the doors on each of our two cockpits, and designing the catwalk and access ladder.

6. Living in a remote part of Australia
   Tom and I dream about how much easier it would be to build in a location where there are several marine stores, hardware stores and other boatbuilders. Although the internet has made it possible to overcome this hurdle, there are times when we really need to physically look at and inspect an item before purchasing. For example, we spent many days scouring all possible outlets for suitable corrosion-proof locks for our cockpit doors, with no luck until we chanced upon a very helpful young man at Architectural Hardware and Northern Locksmiths. After suggesting many alternatives, he remembered a particular lock he had installed some time ago on some utility gates at a particular apartment complex in town, facing the harbour. We took a drive into town, found the locks, photographed them with a phone camera, then came home in researched them on the internet.

   

   We have decided these are perfect for our requirements and have placed an order for Architectural Hasplocks and Architectural Pullbolts.

7. Re-designing components

   The endless cycle – design something based on expectation of resource availability, discover a particular resource is unavailable, identify what substitute resource is available, re-design based on this new knowledge.

8. Outstanding home maintenance
   Boatbuilding means that regular home maintenance falls by the wayside. It was when we realised that our swimming pool was a billabong ready for barramundi fingerlings, our dogs were in danger of getting lost for days in the dense bushland of our front garden, and our chickens had dug a hole halfway to Argentina, that we took a break to do some serious pool and garden maintenance.

9. Procrastination and indecision

   Both Tom and I are perfectionists, which unfortunately slows building progress whilst we procrastinate, debate, and change our minds, until we are both completely happy.

10. AAADD – age activated attention deficit disorder
    Tom, I’m just kidding!