Golden Hind. ‘We still live there,’ says
Tom. ‘We’re too busy building boats to
want to move!’
With interest rates running at 15% back
then, Tom and Lorraine were both working
flat out just to pay the bills, Tom doing
ad-hoc boat repairs and Lorraine in an
office job. They still had the Elizabethan
33 but were rarely finding the time to use
her. It was time for a rethink.
A plan for the future
‘We sold the boat and used the proceeds
to clear the mortgage,’ explains Lorraine,
‘And then we sat down and worked out
our life plan. We realised that all we
wanted was the cottage, a boat, and to
retire early, and the only way we were
going to achieve that goal was to build the
boats ourselves.’
Tom takes up the tale. ‘We started out
with a 23ft angling boat. We bought the
hull with the intention of fitting it out but it
turned out to be in far worse condition
than expected, so we turned it into a
glassfibre plug to make a mould to start
production. We produced one, which was
a centre wheelhouse motorboat, a pretty
little thing. But what we learned from the
experience was that we both hated
working with glassfibre. I’m a woodworker,
and I found working with glassfibre to be a
miserable experience.’
The mould was duly sold, and in fact
ended up in Scotland where the boats
continued to be produced.Tom and Lorraine Owen can be rightfully
proud of their achievement in building
their dream wooden motor yacht ➜BUILDING A WOODEN MOTOR-CRUISER
Elegant Thea heads
out of Dartmouth