This is going to hurt.

As in “trust me – I’m a Nurse”

Or as in “lets go shopping for boat bits”

One of the great things about living out in the country is also one of the greatest problems for a backyard boatbuilder is suddenly realizing that I need to buy materials or some parts and knowing that the only place to buy them is at least an hour’s drive away…..or via another session on the internet. When it comes to materials it has worked out ok because transporting sheets of plywood, which the boat is mostly made of, or long lengths of Douglas Fir, is best to order online and with transport via an experienced courier. When it comes to technical stuff though I tend to go all old fashioned as I find it best to have the part in my hand and more easily imagine it in use.

With the boat completion jobs I recently estimated that i’m about 90 % done with actual work but only about 80 % done with spending – maybe a bit more now as iv’e just spent 2 months worth of my boat budget on just one item (an outboard motor). With actual construction and finishing work I have a long list of jobs written up on the inside of the shed door, keep adding to it while crossing off earlier jobs and keep finding that the small detail jobs I have left take more and more time : for some jobs I have to spend a lot more time sketching out ideas or searching for potential solutions rather than just gluing one part to another and considering it good.

This winter one of my main jobs is to design and build a tent for the boat, I think iv’e found the fabric that I want to use but keep changing my ideas about the kind of thing I want to build ; as with my thoughts about tents for actual camping I swing wildly between the super simple (a tarp slung between 2 trees) and something with every bell and whistle. Interestingly we have camped quite a lot and i’m much less than happy with our everyday tent, have seen something ‘close but not quite’ and would for example like to go completely bonkers with something like a De Waard tent (think ‘mortgage’).

Alt-power. 3 different approaches (in fact all 4) ….oar, sculling notch and engine.

It’s nearly Christmas so lets go spending !…..but spend the budget on what exactly ?

Thus far managing a small budget has been easy in that my choice of what to buy has always been what material comes with the most amount of work once I have it here. Again, that was very easy at first because the choice was basically plywood, Douglas Fir, Epoxy resin and fasteners : the stack of timber that I had delivered from Robbins (Bristol) and John Moody (local) kept me going for all of year one and most of year 2. Some readers who can think back far enough will remember that I had a list of construction jobs inside the left had door of the workshop and next to it a shopping list ; a lot of what I needed month on month was simply consumables such as another batch of resin or a new box of ‘clinical’ gloves……the ones that local Vets use are the best because they are both longer and a bit thicker…..useful I guess if you are sticking your hand up a cow’s bottom !

Having built the damn thing I now have to fit it out and my job list is longer and a lot more detailed so instead of left hand door list item no 1 = build the boat and the shopping list being a dozen sheets of plywood I now seem to spend a whole session working on the problem of ‘make and fit a jam cleat riser’……especially when I have to go into town to select a jammer and then hit the internet (again) for the 2 bolts that I need and which the bits box doesn’t come up with.

The jobs list increases every time I go past it because I see some new thing that needs work only now it often needs an expensive fitting or two. Thus just recently I spent most of a day in town looking at something iv’e never used before (a jib furler) and ultimately buying one at the riggers. While the main chandlery I use in town (Marine Bazaar) is great for the basic stuff the riggers place feels more like cross between a high end jewelry store and toy shop – I had no idea that high end blocks (high end as in Harken and Karver) were so expensive now) so the boat is mostly getting Selden parts – still expensive but not ‘mortgage’ expensive. Of course, walking in the main chandlers place with a twitching debit card and out again with a 4 Hp outboard motor totally did for the boat budget for the last 2 months.

The new master job list……you should see it today !

I think i’m going to spending ‘hand over fist’ for the next 2 months while being a regular visitor to the riggers shop and the main chandlery in town. It’s easy enough to walk down to the shed, open up and see what the shed door has to say about stuff that I need to, or want to buy. What iv’e tried to do today is separate it out such that I get a list of parts that I can use right now to get me towards completion and then do a second list which will, later on, get the boat nearer to expedition boat standard.

This month I mainly need the blocks and cordage to turn the actual money pit into an actually sailing money pit – at this stage it then looks like my spending in month 2 will be sailing accessories such as mooring lines, fenders and a lighter anchor to replace my monster ‘Rocky’ – that alone plus some chain will account for most of the budget. In stage 2 of completion I intend to buy parts for and fit a permanent electrical system – that would not only be the main ballast for the boat but allow me to finally finish main construction which is closure of the central compartment. Stage 2 completion also gives me the interesting challenge of creating a tent cum sprayhood that can be used at sea.

Funnily enough I already know what has to happen beyond that and that is sometime in the spring next year I have to go around to the local sawmill and order a dozen sheets (to start with) of reaonable quality 12mm plywood and at least a hundred feet of plain square edged timber in about ‘3″ x 2″……that’s just to get me started on the new roof beams which span the width of the workshop. That’s also my main spring project in terms of work and once I have made 4 out of the 5 beams eventually needed I have to get some hired help in and have at it with the old workshop roof.

It doesn’t end with a new workshop roof either because i’m hurting to replace some of my existing tools right now and somewhere along the line I have to procure a wood lathe to help me make the plugs for the stage 2 rig.

Sometime in the distant future I would really like to invest in a completely different project and this will be surprising to some but is based around a ‘tadpole’ cycling trike but with full electrical assist and full suspension. That’s a whole different project though and the first step might be a day out at ICE tricycles to whet my appetite even further….ICE being just down the road in Falmouth.

I’m sure that something else will get in the way !