Practical Boat Owner — January 2018

BOATS

Lesson learned, it was back to wooden
boats, and in the early 1990s Tom and
Lorraine embarked on their first build from
scratch, a 35ft yacht called Selene.
Giving up his boat repair work, he
dedicated himself full time to the design
and build, creating a 10-tonne classically
styled yacht of timber and epoxy, a system
Tom favours for one-off builds.
‘You’ve got the wood, which is easy to
work with, but epoxy coating inside and
out effectively makes it a glassfibre boat,
so all the problems of wood then go away.’
The couple kept Selene for 20 years,
cruising extensively, but Tom felt he had
‘one last boat’ in him, and the decision
was made to switch to a motorboat.
‘We found ourselves motoring much of
the time anyway – neither of us have the
patience to sail for eight hours just to get
somewhere we can reach in three under
power. You get there cold, wet and fed
up... it’s meant to be a pleasure.
‘So we asked ourselves, what would
make it a pleasure? Being warm and dry
for a start. Plus with a yacht, you’re buried

in the hull when in the cabin. With a

wheelhouse you can see what’s going on

and be comfortable, and that’s why we

came to the conclusion of a motorboat.’

And that led to the concept of Thea.

They wanted a smaller boat to economise

on moorings and other LOA-based costs,

so the length was pegged at 30ft. There

had to be space in which to live and to

entertain as the couple spend three

months cruising in the summer. A second

cabin was deemed unnecessary but a

large galley was a must as Lorraine likes

cooking, as was a decent sized heads.

A great deal of the experience both of

building and using Selene has found its

way into the design of Thea. The dinette in

the main saloon is a replica of that in

Selene – converting to offer an occasional

double berth – as is the forward cabin with

its offset double berth and masses of

storage (in fact there are 57 lockers

throughout the whole boat).

Getting started

With Selene sold to provide funds, Tom

set to the design, begging the inevitable

question, where do you start?

‘I’m an artist,’ explains Tom, ‘I get an

idea and I’m fortunate that I can “see” the

end product. It just comes naturally. A lot

of things don’t come naturally to me, but

drawing and building do. I understand

curves and shapes, I know what they’re

doing. It’s just a pleasure.’

‘Tom is so gifted,’ says Lorraine, ‘But this

was a big investment in terms of time and

money, so once Tom finished the plans we

did take them to a naval architect and ask

“Will this work?” That also helps with

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Lorraine
handled final finishing; Tom headed up
construction; Thea takes shape in the shed

Neither of us have the patience to sail

for eight hours just to get somewhere

we can reach in three under power

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