Here in Seattle, many of my friends have been working on a custom-made
sailboat in the last couple years. About eighty-five feet long,16 foot
draft, cold molded/carbon fiber hull, joinerwork of madrona, an anchor
which cleverly stows itself below decks. Very nice work.

Kept a mess of local boatwrights working at 35-40 bucks an hour. Final
bill something like 13 million.

The story that is going 'round is she hit a rock in Alaska doing 8
knots. Stopped real quick now. The keel's bulb was mangled but more
important the hull may have been overstressed and fractured. Surveyors
are examining her; it is possible she may be a total loss.

P.C. Ford ) writes:

Kept a mess of local boatwrights working at 35-40 bucks an hour. Final
bill something like 13 million.

darned shame. waste of money. I coulda built it with minimum wage
immigrant labour out of cold moulded luan underlayment, plastic resin
glue, and latex house paint with double thick Tyvek sails on spars
laminated from discarded hockey sticks for under $500,000 (Canadian), and
as each boat was holed and sank keep building replacements and still have
lots of money left over. In fact while I was out sailing the first boat
they could be at work back in the yard building the first replacement
incorporting all the innovations I dreampt up sailing and wrecking the
first boat.

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William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
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I coulda built it out of epoxy for $24 mil and it would still be
sailing.

Ron