Change of course

Since the beginning of this project, almost three years ago, a lot of things changed in my life. I got married, my daughter was born and hopefully, in a few days my wife will give birth to our son.

As far as the boat is concerned, all these changes ment a considerable reduction in my free time, thus in building time. The distance of the building spot from my house made things even more difficult, resulting in almost zero progress during the last year.

I started building the crossbeams in a friends workshop near my house and for the last three months made an effort to find an inexpensive warehouse closeby to accommodate the hulls. I even traveled to Turkey to see an old Tangaroa which was for sale (..a long story) in an attempt to enter the world of Wharram sailors earlier. It was hopeless! I realised that my only chance to be sailing next summer was to have my boat finished and the only way to do so was by acquiring professional help! It wouldn't be cheap but it would certainly be a lot faster then building alone.

Since my decision was made it was only a matter of finding the appropriate people and moving the unfinished hull and the rest of the material to the boats new home. The appropriate people were Vassiliadis bros, with a long history in boatbuilding, mostly traditional Greek vessels (Traehandere), but also experienced in plywood-epoxy construction methods. They are located in Heraclion city harbour, which is only 10' drive from my house. This makes an almost daily visit possible to attend to a new stage of the construction, to short out some details or complete myself many of the different tasks remaining until the realisation of my Tiki 31.

Moving the hull was another thing...The narrow space outside the garage, where I was building until now, made the approach of a large crane impossible. The only way to take the hull out of there was by man power! A few friends came over and helped me roll the hull on small wheels out of the garage and down the steep and narrow alley of my parents' cottage to the main road where the crane lifted it. Fortunatelly the whole process went by smoothly and a few hours later the hull was lowered in it's new building shed almost thirty kilometers away!