Work on the boat is now underway in earnest. We plan to have her ocean-ready by the end of August. Richard the boatbuilder (photo to come soon) is bringing huge amounts of enthusiasm and energy to the project. This morning I arrived at the boatyard to find him clad in a very fetching white paper boilersuit, covered from head to foot in paint dust and bleeding from a head wound.
He’d been sanding back the paintwork so I could apply these battens inside the cabin for fixing control panel, cargo netting, etc. He’d also discovered the painful way that there are some bolts sticking out from the inside wall of the cabin, at just the perfect height to deliver a nasty cut to the head.
It’s not always easy, sitting in a sunny boatyard in Emsworth, to picture what will work and what won’t when I’m rolling around in mid-Atlantic. Will that corner bruise me? Will that hatch crack my head open? Will this seat cause blisters that might get infected? But it’s these details that could make all the difference between success and failure – or at least between having a good time and being flippin’ miserable.