Still breathing, still dreaming!

On the road again...

If I was in the process of building a car or any other vehicle with wheels, I would have been very happy with all the miles it would have travelled so far without being finished yet! Unfortunately, miles on land are not the purpose of a boat (.. or is it?) and mine has already traveled about 60 of them!

Everyone that has been following this blog must have realised that I was in a critical point in the past few months in which the future of the build of my catamaran was at stake. Having moved to another city, I was fortunate enough to find a large space in the basement of my new house. This played an important role as a motive for me to decide to take the boat from the yard she has spent the last two years without significant progress. Having the building sight so close, I can now continue the construction whenever I have some free time (which should be the scenario from the beginning!). This has reestablished the build as a recreational process for me and not the stressful obligation it had turned into the past few years. I hope I will soon have some photos of progress to send and a boat for some nautical miles some time this summer!

I wish a happy, peaceful year to all!

A five year voyage...

It is almost five years this fall, since I received my plans from James Wharram Designs and cut the first plywood panels. I realized it with terror last week, as I was looking at some older photos of the project. Undoubtedly it was a voyage with storms and calms, with many disappointments but also with the happiness that the fulfillment of a dream gives you!

When you get involved in a project like this for the first time you can't possibly realize it's actual size and extensions. Early enthusiasm is a bad advisor and the designers estimations about building cost and man working hours required are far from true and totally disorientating, even if you want the "basic" yacht. In my case though inexperience in handling a boatbuilding project and a lot of unexpected changes in my personal life (good ones fortunately!) led me to a lot of wrong choices which have cost me a lot of extra money, effort and time. It is true that in some moments during these five years the thought of giving up passed through my mind. Then, something always happened and this bloody 31 emerged through the waves again!

Now, as anyone can see in the photos below, I am closer than ever in finishing the boat. The starboard hull is upside down, being glassed and prepped for painting. The port hull is ready up to the deck level as I write these lines. Crossbeams are ready, waiting to be measured, cut to length and installed as soon as the beam throughs of the port hull are ready as well.

At the same time though, the end of the project still seems so disappointingly far away that makes the last drops of motivation inside me to evaporate. My family and I have moved to another city, about 80 km away from the building shed. This led to the elimination of my own boatbuilding time. Vassiliadis bros turned out to be another wrong choice as they need constant supervision and guidance to keep up with the standards I demand on a boat that I pay to be prof finished...! All the above led to a lot of delays and a lot of extra money, way out of the original estimations. Furthermore, a dreadful economical situation in Greece at the time makes the future of the project even more uncertain. It is time for some hard decisions if this Wharram cat is ever going to be launced....

Intermittent progress...(?)

As whoever is still following this blog must have realised until now, regular posts is not my strong point! However, I fortunatelly have some progress to report, although intermittent.

There are many reasons for this, the main being that my family is moving from Heraclion to the nearby city of Rethymnon but there is no point in getting you bored.

The following photos are representative of the delay in the progress of work on the starboard hull....a new 13,5 m Kaique is emerging right next to it as I am struggling to complete the cabin tops. Anyway, I am happy with my modifications and the shape of what might be the second (as far as I know) Tiki 31 with completely enclosed central cockpits (the first one being Lookfar). Beamthroughs also turned out well and seem extremely sturdy. I ended up using a second semi-bulkhead for each beamthrough, extending down to what should be the cockpit floor, according to the original plans. A framework of deckbeams are glued on the two bulkheads, supporting the "deck" of the through, which is then filleted and glassed. An opening in the semi-bulkhead permits the inspection of the framework and underside of the deck of the beamthrough from within the central cabin.

Decks, forward and rear, are also prepared and installed and there has been some progress on the port hull as well.

I have a couple of months until I will no longer be a resident of Heraclion. Until that time I will do my best to complete as many tasks on the boat as possible. Then I will have to decide if I will leave her where she stands until she is finished (this means I will have to drive for an hour to work on her) or if I will move her for the second time and find a place in Rethymnon to finish her. I think the final decision will depend on the progress of the boat at the time I will have to leave. We will see...

cabinsides are being cut and installed

Port hull progress. The floors and bunks are also ready for installation

Deckbeam and deck preparation

Reinforcement for the deck cleats

Beamthrough construction

Some more modifications and refinement will be made to the cabin sides