Well begun is half done.
The Montauk Catamaran Company Boat shop
In the comment thread of an earlier post I said this:
One of the things that’s so different about building a boat vs. making docs is that you start building the boat with a plan that has (nearly) every detail down to the 1/16th of an inch, (or in this case, millimeter; our design/er is English.) The number of panels is specified. The way to lay out all the parts to use the plywood most efficiently is specified. And on and on…
We got our boat shop today.
From the door to the back wall is 44 feet. Post to post it’s just under 20 feet. The wings are 34 feet long and 12 feet wide. There’s room to build both hulls side by side, plus room for tools, mixing stations, joinery stations; room for everything needful.
Our new hire, a talented young artist and craftsman poached away from one of our nation’s capital’s finest cultural institutions arrives this weekend and we’ll start transforming the above space into a proper workshop.
Presently plywood and lumber and epoxy and paint and motors and battery banks and sails and ropes and blocks and all sorts of other things will begin to accumulate, and then by the application of effort and ingenuity these various bits and pieces will become a 38′ Polynesian style catamaran — the first ever James Wharram designed boat built to US Coast Guard Inspected Passenger Vessel specs.
The instructions for how to make this happen are in that green and black bag sitting there on that table in the back right corner. Every piece of wood, every inch of line, every block, every yard of fiberglass accounted for down to the millimeter; all right there in a cardboard folio in that bag.
I am excited. Very, very excited!
Can I just say this series of posts is kind of mega-cool? I’m enjoying living vicariously through you, David.Report
True ‘dat.Report
I’m really hoping that David still does a bit of film-making. I’d love to see a short film documenting this process. A time lapse film would be cool too.Report
Wharram has a pretty big following, and I did the math on a comprehensive documentation of the build with a eye towards some sort of rich media offering; there’s probably a market there. But in the end I decided against it for two major reasons:
The present landscape for small producers of Intellectual Property is uncertain. Investing the time and money to produce well enough crafted document that there would be a hope of a return is a risky gambit. If I believed it was a good bet, I’d put the effort into finishing/distributing/promoting films I’ve already shot.
Conversely, the boat looks to be a good bet, so a possible resources are being pressed into ensuring a timely and positive result. What film-making is done around the Mon Tiki build will be that that serves the promotional needs of the project or my personal whimsy. (All work and no play make Jack a dull boy!)
Report
Thanks Tod, that’s nice of you to say, and I appreciate it! My objectives blogging here (so far as I can identify and name them) are three-fold:
In fact, just yesterday, and as this project crossed the event horizon I had a chat with Bob Wise (before he built the Loose Moose II he had built a Wharram Tiki 31.)
“It’s all about momentum now, David!” he counseled “Get going and keep going!”
Rest assured I am counting on the well-wishes and good thoughts of This League towards this endeavor upon which so much depends!
Report