Strange little floating cork with sails

Hey there Bataan,

My fleeting bro-mance with the Alien yacht, is about little more than the space and rather decadent accommodation that the hull size offers.

The notion that I'd still have space for hot water, desalination, etc, etc, etc, is also appealing and oh so seductive.

The fact that it is an ocean going thoroughbred... well, I could take that or leave that, until I was required to man-up and captain it out of the marina. I'm sure it would end in tears.

That said, I'm browsing through the Roberts designs, even as I type this. Bland design after bland design... All of them rather expensive.

I am also considering the T800, which I understand in detail, just from studying a zip file the Polish guy emailed me. Only the ballast/keel seems to elude my comprehension.

Lifting mechanisms I understand, but how does an oak laminate keel in an unspecified and undefined keel box make for a boat that wants to right itself after capsizing? Have I missed something?

Options and yet more options, questions and yet more questions make such a project such a worthwhile adventure.

Regards,

James.

 

James, my old BERTIE was built for $15,000, has room like a gymnasium, tolerance of great changes in weight and trim, draws about 1.6 meters, does 125 miles a day at sea and is immensely durable in a very industrial sense that modern craft can only dream about (everything I have ever hit, I have destroyed, and a boat that t-boned me in a ramming when I was tied to a pier nearly sank himself, while barely scratching our paint). I don't think she's bland, but antique definitely. I understand your taste is for more modern appearing vessels, but remember the boat is just a means to do a job for you, not an end in itself. Don't confuse social acceptability for function, it's a common mistake. And modern light weight boats are not very durable when you or others smash them against hard things due to unforeseeable events.

 

Find yourself a westright potter 14ft sailboat. Put your family aboard and see if they like sailing around in it. If the answer is yes build a 30 ft barge to store all your nessasary stuff and tow it behind. Realy why don't you save youself a lot of greef and just buy a sound 35ft older sailboat. Why do you feel the need to prove and document that the ridiculous is doable?

 

Hi there,

A 13 part documentary/series about buying a boat is not compelling television.

So, you go buy a boat, while I cut up some ply.

Regards,

James.

 

As an amateur boat builder you are not the one to learn from for sure.
Why on earth some people need excuse to built a boat, like these key words: teaching, community, after school programs, drug addiction rehabilitation, and all that crap.
Just do your boat, since you have to learn how to do it, you don't have much time.
Buy the way you budget seams reasonable. Choose a good plan, and stick to the plans.
The sea don't scale down, choose the biggest boat you can afford to built.
Comfort and safety reason.
Lister

 

Check out some others' attempts in this vein and you will find the films crashingly boring for all but a very small audience. Researching a film project is like researching a boat building project, look at others' mistakes first. Don't make a film that has too small an audience because it is just a waste of your effort. Plan the film around the audience's desires in a product.
Not many folks really care about the quality of the epoxy mix and the many problems involved, or the nuances of keel bolt installation, or how to get the mast rake right. To the layperson, all these boats look alike, a blobby white fiberglass thing they don't really understand. They do not share your passion or understanding at all.
It is possible to film these things like building in a dramatic way, but it takes a lot of time to do so, and good lighting to show it, and more time and at least a minimal crew to light each set-up, and a breathless announcer with a radio voice overlaid in post to tell the dummies what the heck you're doing. You can't just have shop lights and a video camera and expect to film this yourself while you work and talk and not have crap when you are done. People are used to pictures that look good and don't react well to amateur video, which means a crew of people who are good if you want a consistent product. Even in reality TV, this is how it is done.
As a producer, which I am, I would stay far far far farther away from this film project, because nobody would care about or watch it and I would lose all my money.
Now sailing the boat and getting in trouble of some sort, that's TV. In the Marquesas a German sailor just got eaten by a local. That's very good TV. Building a boat, boring me to tears, change the channel quick. OOOhhhh, giant battling robots...

 

Hey there Lister,

You're the first to make the observation here. Let me clarify, I'm not aiming to teach people how to build boats.

The aim is quite simple. To share my build project, warts and all. My first failed attempt at lofting the bulkheads. Reworks because of poor skills/craftsmanship, cost-overruns resulting from poor supplier/product choices... and all the little "wins" including good choices, good outcomes and finally a great finished product.

I would however not enjoy sharing how my crane operator destroyed my boat when it was flipped right way up... So lets be a little optimistic as assume this will not happen.

I would hope that the few people watching the series might identify with the issues I'm dealing with and have a laugh, be inspired by what I've achieved and consider undertaking such a project or simply be entertained by a guy building a boat in his backyard.

One word does sum it up... Entertainment.

Why produce a documentary/series for community television? Simply because Australian community television is about as bad as it is in any other country, with the possible exception of New Zealand. I've produced a few programmes for C31 in the past and had a great deal of fun doing it.

Regards,

James.

 

Go for it. Who knew vampires would become such a big hit. Maybe you have the next weird thing the public wants. The odds are small but who knows? No I don't want to be an investor.

 

LOL... Investment worthy? I don't think so.

I can visualise the prospectus now... Well, um, it's about this guy, who ripped out the flowers in his backyard, cut up some wood and a few fingers, to build a boat that ended up being busted in two by a crane operator.

No, not a worthy investment.

You have me thinking about the comedy value now.

James.