Thinking Time and Working Time

“Sometimes I sit and think; other times I just sit!”

What has amazed me is the amount of time needed for working out how best to build each part of ‘Faith’, the Paradox sailboat I am currently building. Interpreting the plans correctly requires time; transposing the information to the materials takes time; checking everything is time consuming, but if care is not taken, mistakes can be made, which can be very expensive in time and effort.

Much time can be saved by spending time gathering information about how others have built their boats. In this respect downloading photos and articles from the Internet can be very helpful.

Working time is not always easy to come by because there are so many demands upon ones time. A whole day is very valuable, but even a half of a day can be useful. Quite often it’s a matter of fitting in the odd moment here and there, in between doing those things that have to be done.

A certain mindset is required – that’s a determination to overcome those demands that steal time from the project - time must be spent on building the boat, and yet important things must have the priority. Building the boat is secondary, or is it? This dilemma is a conundrum that poses a question of precedence.

The stage I’m at now is assembling the frames, transom, stem and side panels, prior to gluing them together. It’s a time for checking that everything fits snugly. To do this easily I’ve constructed a building trolley on which the boat can easily be taken in and out of the garage. Being able to work outside is less restricting than being in the confines of the garage and there is the advantage that the boat can be protected from the elements when I’m not working on her.