Lorraine says, “During the summer, we were starting at 6am
and fi nished at midday. Then we’d go home for a siesta during
the heat of the day and come back and work through the evening.”
And work they did, for up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week
for 18 months.
Initially the hull was built upside down, the mahogany
frame formed fi rst and then skinned in plywood and epoxied. “I
tend to build, Lorraine tends to fi nish. She does the rubbing down,
the fi lling, the varnishing, the paint etcetera. So I’m
building frantically, and she follows along and fi nishes it.”
July 25 was a red letter day – the inverted hull was removed
from the shed and very carefully turned the right way up
before being returned indoors to start on the rest of the
build.
Tom calculates that 9,000 man-hours went into the
boat in total, slowed only slightly by two unplanned hip
operations for Lorraine during the build. Tom worked right
through Christmas, stopping only for Christmas day itself.With everything checked (a surveyor oversaw the build, and
the electric and gas systems have been inspected), Thea launched
into the River Dart with a small celebration on December 3, 2016,
making her offi cially the last boat to be built at this once great
industrial shipyard with a history of boatbuilding stretching
back into the 19th century. Tom and Lorraine can’t speak highly
enough of the yard that has been home to their dream for so long.
“Premier Marinas were superb. They were incredibly helpful way
beyond what would have been fi nancially useful to them. And that
includes the company CEO Peter Bradshaw, who always came to
see our progress when he was at the site.”They worked for up to 12 hours a day,
seven days a week for 18 months
Lorraine’s user-friendly
galley takes shape