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

money

ok, I admit it, I'm Dutch and like to sit on my money. Boatbuilding is the opposite, so I still wonder how I got myself involved in this. Despite all our good intentions, yes, the way to hell is paved with these, we have gone over budget and just got a mail describing how much more we will be over budget...

Yikes, panic, major panic. Normal people could ask a boat builder that they could put the project on hold for a few months, but for us it is impossible. We have no extra funds to pay for the storage and they have been pushing this project since they have another one coming up and need the space.

The major complaint for holdup is the lack of drawings from the designer and from the designer you get the answer that he has never received emails from the builder. In between we try to come with solutions to problems, but how should I know how to attach the deck to the hull...

All I want in this stage that this nightmare is over. Euhh, if somebody has some lose money, let me know, since we really need it.