Wednesday, March 26, 2008

sorry friends, we do listen

Peter and I are truly blessed with very good friends who care about us. They are always willing to listen and come with good advice too. In the case of building the boat, we haven't listened to you guys, sorry. Even now, with the boat over budget and late delivery, we still don't follow your advice... Is it stupid? Perhaps.

At the moment, or even a few months ago, people asked why can't you place the project on hold, so you have a chance to save some money before you allow them to continue working. Alas, the problem is that even if the builder wouldn't work on it, we would still need to pay money for rent etc to them. Furthermore, the builder already accepted a new project after us, so wants us out of there rather sooner than later.

Both Peter and I know a number of boatbuilders, but as well a number of amateur builders. We learned that as soon as the project loses momentum, it is very difficult to re-start it. We had sort of this experience when we had problems with the delivery of wood. Only after much blaming and arguing, the project started to get going again and is making good progress now.

We got offered a place on the hard, to finish the yacht off while still comfy living on land. We refused this, since we know ourselves. I know that as soon as we're not confronted daily with a problem, like get running water, we will be lazy and work will progress slowly. As well one thing that is bothering us a lot at the moment is the fact that we don't have an overview, or control of the expenses. A supplier faxes you his invoice and we have to assume it is delivered and will be used for our boat. The moment the yacht is out of our influence, we run the change of having this experience again. We want to be able to be more in control of our budget and want and need to do it in our time and pace.

We knew when we started, that it would take years before the yacht will be finished. It is not great, but something we can live with. She will be comfortable enough without all the nice finishes and we will have running water, a toilet, a matrass to sleep on, places to chill or lounge, lights and bought a whole lot of plastic containers for our stuff. We will have our crying moments, especially when trying to remember where you left what, but hey, it still beats living in a house.

Cheers, N

1 comment:

Unknown said...

gaaf om te zien, succes met de afbouw
Ricahrd