Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

O

ngemak – the word means

discomfort in the de Wet's

native Afrikaans language,

and was chosen as the

name of Oloff and Muir de Wet’s self-

built boat. Last month the brothers

described how they quit good jobs

in their late 30s to begin a backyard

nautical adventure.

They left office life behind to create their

dream boat, a sloop designed for

extensive cruising for two couples. Their

design would offer minimum maintenance,

simple onboard systems, energy efficiency

and solar reliance. Initially they considered

buying a hull and deck to fit out

themselves, but eventually decided that to

get what they wanted they’d have to start

from scratch. Aluminium was their

construction material of choice so they

learnt welding and plenty more besides.

Fortune favoured the brave by finding a

perfect place to build her too. As Oloff

takes up the story he says they also had

something else to consider...

Money talk

You can’t discuss the idea of building your

own boat, and of extended cruising,

without considering the question of money.

Oloff de Wet describes how he and his brother, Muir, both

boatbuilding novices, could afford to give up work and turn their

attentions to the full time construction of a bespoke aluminium boat

Building an

aluminium sloop

Welding aluminium is

generally regarded as

tricky because it has a low

melting point of 600°C as

opposed to steel which is

1400°C. However, as the

project developed so did

the de Wet brothers’ skills

Marine grade aluminium plates were

used in the construction, each 6mm thick

PART

TWO

76 Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk

PRACTICAL