Group, since not a lot is going on at the moment why not take a look at
www.schoonersail.com and see the 70' steel schooner that my friend John has
built for himself.
John used to crew for me on yacht deliveries 25/30 years ago. His first
self-build project was a 60' polynesian catamaran to James Wharram's design
which he built in his garden on the upper Thames in England. That one was
plywood sheathed in GRP.
The river was not wide enough to assemble her there so he lashed the two
hulls together and floated her down until the river was wide enough to mount
the cross members. He sailed her to Spain and lived aboard for a while until
he decided he wanted more accomodation.
So he set to and designed and built 'Trinovante'. She is steel and three
masted as you can see and was built in a field in eastern England by John
himself using welding and cutting torches and a hand operated crane. She was
built in two halves and taken to the dockside where he welded them together
and launched her. Then in a small creek he rigged the mast and sails while
his wife Sue fitted out the cabins. The whole project took fifteen years
because from time to time they had to take jobs to finance the venture.
Now he is running trips around UK on this fine vessel so if you want to
cruise UK this is the way to go. He is bringing her to Norway this year to
start a round Britain cruise from there.
I think it will be very hard to beat this as a self-build project carried
through to fruition.