QWide companion way steps that you
can walk up or down with a drink in hand.
The top step is deep enough to sit on
during watch keeping.
QComfortable aft cabin with athwartships
double bed.
QHeads aft with full-size toilet.
QLarge G-shaped galley with the engine
under the counter and accessible from
all sides.
QSaloon benches and saloon sole are all
long enough to sleep on.
QComfortable forecabin with watertight
impact compartment and large stowage.
QDeep anchor locker keeps the weight of
the 50m chain low.
QClear forward view from the saloon.
Building the interior
The interior consists of many small diverse
jobs, so it is never boring and generally
you have to move on to the next phase
just when you were comfortable with what
you were doing.
Carpentry on Ongemak was fairly basic,
and a lot consisted of merely bolting
marine plywood to the frames and
stringers which were already in place. This
process is very quick and the result is
extremely strong.
We had all the plywood for the
bulkheads professionally covered with
Formica on both sides. Formica is usually
used for kitchen counters, so on
bulkheads it will hopefully last forever
without any maintenance. Most of the
cabinets got the same Formica fi nish, but
we made liberal use of Burmese teak for
trimming and for fi ddle rails.
Hennie Olivier gave us a generous gift- wood off a 1918 railway coach which he
saved after having done the whole of the
interior of his beautiful Miura, Sieraad.
Personally I love this contrast in our boat
between the new modern materials and
the age old teak.
A big part of the interior is plumbing and
electricity. There is a lot of literature on
both, so let me simply say that it’s
important to use very high quality parts in
the hostile marine environment, like
proper hose and tin-coated wire.
We did, however, fi nd that it’s not always
necessary to pay an arm and a leg for the
marine stamp on a piece of equipment
and that bits and pieces from your local
hardware store can sometimes do the
trick. But buy a sacrifi cial sample in such a
case, and test it severely before you allow
it on board!
The end and the beginning
Five years after we started our project, we
had our fi nal boat party. There were nearly
50 people in attendance, and Muir and I
would really like to thank all our friends
who lived this dream with us through their
constant support and encouragement.
A variation on the old toast is in order, I
suppose: ‘To the wind that blows, the ship
that goes, and those who love a sailor!’
But a few days later the enormous crane
and truck came to transport Ongemak to
the Royal Cape Yacht Club, and for this
occasion we did not invite anyone. It wasA dream becomes a reality as Ongemak rounds Cape Point in South Africaa private affair – full of excitement, but also
stressful with lots of detail to keep in mind.
Fortunately, even though there was a
strong breeze and a bit of rain, everything
went very smoothly. Isolde de Villiers put a
lovely video clip of the event on YouTube- search for ‘Aluminium Zeppelin.’ There
is also one of the actual launch –
‘Ongemak Launch.’
And this then is the end of this story. But
a boat which fl oats is always the
beginning of a new story...
Anyone interested in self-building a
yacht at home, or our design in particular,
is welcome to contact us at oloffdewet@
gmail.com or [email protected]. We
are making both the CAD drawings, and
the cradle to build the boat in, available
for free.
BUILD AN ALLOY SLOOP
‘Build a boat because you want to build a
boat, not because you simply want a boat’
MAIN FEATURES■Design Ongemak 35
■LOA 10.45m 34ft 4in
■LOD 9.90m 32ft 6in
■Beam 3.33m 10ft 11in
■Draught 1.75m 5ft 9in
■Displacement 5,300kg 11,685lb
■Ballast 2,100kg 4,630lb
■Rig sloop
■Year launched 2016
■Building time 5,000 hours
■Building cost South African
Rand 650,000
(approx £38,500)A set of
second-hand
sails do the job
for Ongemak’s
fi rst sea trials