Home-building something that is pointy at both ends
by Andy Ford 6 Apr 2020 10:16 BST
Home-building a Rangley Lake Double Ender - fitting small decks at each end © Andy Ford
Andy Ford shares a boat-building process which began with a very complicated brief. It seems he wanted three boats, but felt he should build just one hull...
The journey began when I decided I needed a base design that I could play with over lots of ideas. Ultimately I was keen on a Proa, and later perhaps a trimaran. This meant it needed to be pointed at both ends!
And beautiful. And fit in my shed. And be useful day-to-day, to make sense.
So I found a beautiful classic 17 ft rowing boat called Rangley Lake Double Ender. It's strip-built cedar epoxy sandwich, but slightly too long to fit in the shed. Thus the project started with making the shed longer by opening the doors and turning them into bay windows!
I've spent the last year building the boat; at first very gradually, but now with social distancing in place I am doing a lot more, which is keeping my sanity.
We think the hull looks beautiful, and are very intrigued to see what sort of unique/innovative rig Andy puts on top of it! Remember we want to hear YOUR stories of boat repairs, renovations and invention too.