Every once in a while I find myself somewhat dumbfounded on just how bad some of the Islander 36 build and design happen to be. Far too often I find myself doing the “What the hell were they thinking of?” two-step mantra and it’s just sorta/kinda crazy making.
Of course, the truth is that the Islander 36 is a great design but, like all designs, there are going to be flaws in the overall mix. A situation that goes for just about all boats and I’ve yet to come across a design or build that was an exception to the trend.
Face it, all boats are problematic.
A designer has to work around his clients, the builder has to work around the designers issues and left outs, and then the buyer has to work around all the workarounds that resulted in the boat he just bought. To be sure EVERY buyer after that is going to have a plethora of issues and workarounds he or she will have to work around.
Since our Islander has been rebuilt a couple of times thanks to hurricanes Hugo and Marilyn so not only do we have a plethora of issues I feel need to be addressed it sometimes feels like only an insane person would be doing it. Then again, living in an insane world what would you expect?
With all that being the case, I’m fairly happy with the progress of the project and how it’s all going. Right now I’m almost to the point that most of my job list is morphing into workarounds of my initial workarounds and there is light at the proverbial end of the tunnel. Life is good and I have a hot date with some epoxy and filler to get rid of some holes that are no longer needful and it’s a beautiful day to be doing it.
For something of interest on a not boat related subject this bit regarding compost sorta/kinda made my day.