Many years ago when we first launched our 42 ft liveaboard catamaran, a tender was the last thing on our minds. For those that have built before, I’m sure we’ve all gone through this, running around checking everything to make sure that when the crane arrives to drop you last few years of hard work and money into the water, the tender…well that’s the last thing you want to think about.
So, with the crane now gone and your pride and joy now floating, you crank up the motor and move it into it’s pen and now its time to move aboard properly.
After a couple of days and all the excitment begins to die down, its time to start thinking about the first sail. So do I build or buy? So, with so much going on, I found this pram up for sale and ripped around and bought it. Crikey, heavy.. but it will do. I can always do something better later on when I find the time and place to do it. We’ll, we took the dinghy out and damn..what a dog. Always wet, couldn’t carry a real load and heavy as hell. So after a couple of weeks, we decide to crank up the sails and head south to the WhitSunday Islands and camp out there for a while.
First job though on arriving had to be a new dinghy. But what do I build? Where do I build? A friend of mine a dinghy he drew up and built , so he gave us the outline for it. That’ll do, as it had to be better than the piece of junk we had. It was a typical flat bottom dory around 13ft long and 4 ft wide, not a flash boat, but it had to be better than that damn pram.
Arriving at the WhitSundays, we ripped around to Muddy Bay at high tide, spun the boat around, kicked the pick over and backed in onto the beach, tieing up to the coconut palms, and beaching the boat on the sand (stern to) with a park right behind us. Top spot. Got a place to build !
Right next to us was an elderly gentleman who lived full time on his yacht on the beach and talking with him he was looking for a small dinghy to get back and forwards to his boat during high Tide. So we sold the dinghy to him for a carton of beer. Good trade ! Looking around the park, I spotted the “Table of Knowledge” (the park bench and table) Asking a fellow neighbours if I minded using it, they replied “Go for it”
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| The Table of Knowledge |
So we ripped up to the Hardware store, grabbed some ply, then back to the park, threw the generator along with the epoxy and boatbuilding tools over the side and rip, tear bust, we were into it. It didn’t take long though before our friendly neighbours turned up and threw a beer into my hand.
“Crikey Mate, bit murky and warm” I commenting about th beer.
“Straight out of the home brew keg. Warm? Whadda ya talkin’ bout, it’s been in the shade!” (it was only 27 degrees in the shade)
“Cheers” I said, straining the murky beer thru my back teeth.
So over the next 3 days as we built part time between lazing about, watching our youngest learn to play chess with a fellow yachtie whilst our eldest swam and walked the boat with her net catching prawns, we cut out the plywood parts, then stitched and taped the boat together and painted her ready for launching. Then on the 4th day, she was launched. What a cracker compared to the last piece of junk! So we kept this boat as our tender for the next 12 months until it was time to build another.
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| Launched |
A “V” bottom hull. Now we’re talking about a real boat ! And the Mushulu 12 was concieved!
So, it just goes to show that if you really want a boat, you can build a boat just about anywhere !!
are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Plans Wooden. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.
