Beneteau 331...& the WLYDO*

I've started cutting a Beneteau 331 for a member of our yacht club. Faced with not being able to get lines I was saved by another member of Cruising Anarchy known as Rasputin.

Thanks to this man's amazing ability to reverse engineer from photos and simple drawings I not only got lines, but some wonderful renderings.

So now I am able to easier produce very accurate hulls for boats that don't have lines readily available...

This is the first grinding of the hull...

* Worlds Largest Yacht Design Office...more on this later

New project Santa Cruz 37

So 

I find myself offering a few options in these hulls so I thought I should spell them out.

First is the "Designer's Hull"... this hull is carved to the smallest of tolerance and must be created from accurate lines. The color scheme is mono-tone with a contrasting fine line at the designed water line.

The Sliver boats show this well.

The next option is the "Owner's Hull". This choice is built to the same standards but shows the owners boat in particular, matching hull color, boot stripe size and color, and (optional) antifouling.

Like this...

Another option is the "Builder's Hull". Again to the same standards but is true to colors the hull would sport when it left the factory...primarily no anti fouling. The look is a bit crisper than the Owner's Hull.

Last but not least the "Not too Serious Hull"... I'm not really sure that I can describe these well as I pretty much make them up as I go along.

Each one is unique...a great option for the owner who already has a half hull.

Q30/32...done

A place of honor...

I'm lost for words...any sailor knows that room in the head is not
given up lightly.

Thanks Bob!!

How to build a cartoon...

Little Keeper followed the exact same process as all the other hulls...from lines, to lifts, to grinding, to paint and finish, and finally a backboard.

The biggest challenge was keeping the piece a cartoon, and not to get caught up in accuracy. However, the hull is quite accurate to the cartoon, as it should be....and not being able to ask Bob for advice was a little disconcerting, but I got through it.

The backboard was probably the toughest for me as I had to design it. Making a serious backboard for this hull seemed like a mismatch...so I took the look to the extreme.

Thankfully Bob and Jill have a sense of humor and I think they like the piece.

Back to the Q now.

My "little" project...

A couple years ago Bob Perry honored me with a cartoon of our Mirage 33 "Gatekeeper"... to this day it makes me smile every time I look at it.

This past weekend Mrs Keeper and I had the pleasure of meeting Bob and his charming wife Jill...and I got the chance to reciprocate for his generous gesture. I was going to carve Bob a hull of Gatekeeper, but Bob has a huge collection of half hulls, and another hull would not be unique...so what to you give the world famous designer who has seen everything?

You give him something that I doubt has ever been done...a half hull of a cartoon.

I'm told it has found a home on the wall in the office bathroom...truly an honor if you know Bob's thoughts on the matter.

More later about the process.

Off on vacation...

Mrs Gatekeeper and I leave tomorrow on a short vacation to spend a couple days with my mentor, and old friend Bob Perry... I'll also meet the father of the Twins, WHL (from Cruising Anarchy) and the God Mother of Sparky (aka ECHO) and applicable spouses...I may even get to see the real Sliver under construction.

So the Q30/32 has her first two coats of paint in place, and she has been wet sanded hence the dull finish.  Two more coats to go.

My paint supply did a great job on the colour match so I should be wrapping this boat up in 3-4 days after I return.

After laying on the blue base and correcting a few defects the hull is sanded again, primed in grey and the white boot stripe colour is blown on.

This has been a very enjoyable project as the client is quite involved and has high standards The best clients have high standards.

Time to paint...Q30/32

The Quest 30/32 has progressed to the finishing stage.

The colour, while similar to the final coats, is simply to add gloss so I can access the hull for flaws and marks before moving onto final painting.

This is my first scoop transom...it was a challenge. The bulb keel is a pain and takes more time than any other component on this project, but it's highly visible and has to be right.

Q32...some pics

The Q32 is shaping up nicely... I even had to invent a tool or two.

The truth is out...ECHO does not exist

 Well the half hull exists, but ECHO is actually a fine SW42 named Sparky. It was a gift from one member of CA to another, so keeping this alias in place was important.

Here is the real boat.

...and the little version again