I am building a 63 foot ocean voyaging catamaran in my driveway.
So then, not too long ago I made another “Help Wanted” post here at The League, but things have not turned out quite as I planned.
The original plan was to secure about 3000 square feet of shop space, hire about a dozen workers, and build a James Wharram Pahi 63 in about eight months’ time.
But after several week of intense searching, it’s become clear that shop space of this size is simply not available on the East End for love or money.
So then, we recalibrated, and thought about lessons learned on the Mon Tiki build and builds before that:
- 15 years ago, when I fininished my Phil Bolger designed Light Scooner (25′, ~700lbs) I declared that if I ever build another boat I’d build all the fiddly bits first and the hull last. That way, when the hull was done I could mount all the fidldly bits and sail away, rather than the more usually event of having the hull done, and then having it take as much time or longer to make all the fiddly bits.
- Reviewing the Mon Tiki build photos I see that of the ten months it took to get Mon Tiki in the water, only about two of those months were devoted to hull assembly, with the rest being devoted to tasks and parts that required substantially less room.
So then, I have taken my own advice and begun the Pahi 63 in my driveway. And about two weeks after taking delivery of materials I am nearing completion of the first and sixth akas (crossbeams) of this massive beast.
These two fabrications (see the photo above) are almost 27 feet long already nearly too heavy to lift. When completed they will weigh about 350lbs and require four men to move. Then I will move on to the second, third, fourth, and fifth aka, which are larger still.
Once these are complete I’ll begin work on all the deck components (all significantly small and lighter than the akas), which are slung between the akas in the final assembly of the vessel. This means I can build out the entire deck of Mon Tiki Largo (working title) before ever laying the first plank of the hulls.
As to the hulls, Allah will provide; which is to say we’ll build outside when the weather improves, just like people have been building big boats for time out of mind.
A huge measure of the credit for seeing around the obstacle of shop space goes to my wife, who is one tenth as vainglorious as I am, but twice as clever. She also says she’d much rather have me spend the winter building a boat than picking fights on the internet.
Now heres a picture of the sunset from a couple of nights ago.
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Your long term goal is an entire pirate fleet, isn’t it.
Fess up.Report
To err is human…Report
My long term goal is to bring joy to as many people as I can before I’m dead.Report
Coincidentally, that’s exactly why I became a pizza-delivery gigolo.
Sadly, the joy is derived mostly from the pizza.
(Great sunset pic btw).Report
My long term goal is to bring joy to as many people as I can before I’m dead.
I’ll note that there are many people who want to be a pirate, so you just dodged this question.Report
Sounds like you made a smart financial decision as well as one that will pay off psychically when you finish the hull. Double win!
I’m the kind of guy who’s always got a new project but has a hell of a time seeing them through, so your boat building delights and impresses me.Report
When I was an art student one of my professors advised me, “David, it’s okay to milk it a little.” He said this because as a student my habit was to take an idea to the proof-of-concept stage and then move on to the next thing. This, it turns out, is a life long habit.
Mon Tiki is full of all manner of things unfinished. But she has her COI and she earns. She’s sailed from Montauk to Isla Mirada FLA and back, and I was comfortable. Apparently that’s good enough for me.
“Seeing things through”? Through to what? Through till you’re ready to take on the next thing. If your bills are paid, your house is warm, and your belly’s full, that’s all that really matters.Report
Having the benefit of something like 40 years as artists, this touches on something both my husband and I see as crucial — any individual piece is typically not a ‘project’ in and of itself; it’s part of an ongoing progression that takes some core idea or concept, and returns to it over and over, in as many different ways as we can imagine to explore that idea or concept. It’s pretty easy to speak of any single piece, that’s how people generally encounter our work, (and I’m with you; it’s the last 5% of detail that’s typically the most difficult to get done and easy to let slip as you move on to the next piece).
But in terms of developing and probing the vision we’re working toward, it’s the ideas and themes we keep going back to revisit; often not realizing it until we’re knee deep; though as we’ve gotten older, this is more obvious. It’s why an artist’s body of work is important to consider to evaluate the artist; that’s where you see the themes, the life-time or multi-year exploration of concept, evolve.Report
Why is it important to evaluate an artist? You don’t hang the artist on your wall, you hang the painting. I’d no sooner “evaluate an artist” as I’d evaluate a chef.Report
“Seeing things through”? Through to what?
It would be nice to have at least one room in my house that was actually finished, instead of all of them being in a half-completed state for years. As in, the putty filling the divots in the wood trim around the entryway between dining room and kitchen that needs to be sanded down and painted, but has been there for probably four years. As in doing the backsplash behind the sink and kitchen for which I cut the slate and Johanna patterned it just right two years ago.
I mean the half-hour job of reattaching the gutters I removed this summer so I could repair the roof, and which I can’t do at any time when the roof is slick, which is probably from now until July.
I mean doing some plaster patching in our entryway, then drywalling two walls and the ceiling of it so our months of staring at the insulation don’t stretch into years. (I did get the insulation done, though!)
I don’t mean the whole house as a project–I mean the individual parts of it. And if I never get around to building the in-wall shelves for my office, that’s fine…until I actually begin that project by cutting into the walls and then don’t finish.
And then there’s this textbook thingy…Report
I’ve never hung a performance by Miles Davis on a wall. I’ll have to give that a try.Report
Interestingly, my next conceptual piece will actually entail hanging an artist on my wall.Report
Interestingly, my next conceptual piece will actually entail hanging an artist on my wall.
Awesome Glyph. Your idea might be the ultimate in pomo conceptual art-making. I mean, this piece wouldn’t even require any of the standard materials used in any other medium. Just living breathing artists. I think you’re onto something here!Report
She didn’t hang herself on the wall, but Marina Abramovi? was, otherwise, Just living breathing artists.
I’m not all that sure I actually think of this project as ‘art,’ even giving performance art a lot of leeway, but I’m definitely certain that I wouldn’t want to do this, too. I’d rather instigate audience participation via song and clapping and dancing. But whatever floats your boat.Report
I think you should carve out some time to get into fights with strangers on the internet anyway.Report
Or dear friends could double up to pick up the slack?
Never mind.Report
I am building a 63 foot ocean voyaging catamaran in my driveway.
Which is just so cool. Part of me wishes I were retired nearby so I could help. Then the arid high plains part of me reminds me that large bodies of water make me really, really nervous.Report
But the driveway should be safe enough.Report
Congrats, Dave. I’m jealous. Not only of the boatbuilding, but the whole damn thing. Have fun!Report