One thing no one ever tells you is that all boat building and refit projects is mostly a lot of sitting around doing nothing while you try to figure stuff out. Which is not always a bad thing.
So far this month, I’ve put in a couple of hours of actual work on the boat while waiting on various things, materials, phone calls to get needful questions answered, and the odd possible hurricane. It might surprise you that when the dust settles it has not been a bad week at all. Progress, albeit small progress, has been made.
Most issues that restrict progress present themselves as obstacles of one sort or other and in my experience getting rid of obstacles is never an easy thing. Sorting out obstacles is often akin to three-dimensional chess and working through the various issues takes a lot more time than anyone would think. On the Islander, most of the various issues that are causing me problems are directly related to someone not thinking through a problem back when. That odd bit of wiring, a repair someone made to get by for a day or two that has never been sorted out, and two different non-completed jobs where you can’t tell where one leaves off and the other begins can drive you right into a padded room.
The big thing, for me at least, is that boats and boat systems need to make sense and fall within a logic based universe. Sadly. most boats or boat systems are seldom logical and tend to be based on a make-it-up-as-you-go-and-I’ll-sort-it-out-later kludge based mindset.
Which brings me around to the 80/20 rule in that 80% of the work involved is actually thought based and 20% is just doing the physical work that’s needful. More thinking is the trick where a good fast build or refit is concerned.
Speaking of thoughtful builds, over at the Proa File there is a very interesting thread on what I consider a pretty exciting Proa design and building method that makes all kinds of sense. something that is well worth checking out.