that is a huge longtime project on that boat!
Taru,
Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures of such a grand but sad old lady. If Alex is brave enough to take on a project of this scale, you should turn and run away as fast and as far as you can! LOL
The cost of materials alone would cause tremendous strife between you and the time it would take away from your life's journey could never be recaptured.
Buy a boat that someone else has labored over and is ready to take you where you want to go. Someone got a great deal on Caos and someone will get a great deal when you sell Dwende, because Alex has poured his soul into both boats.
I speak from a lifetime of doing it the hard way...my way.
As one similarly afflicted, I vote for madness. There is only one cure. And it is found in mid-ocean after about the third day of a long passage.
Richard
Blackheart: Yeah I think know what it is. Duende was in close to as bad state. I understand if Alex would want to take on such a project again, as long as I can stay on land during the process it would be ok for me. Duende is enough of challenge for now though, no more new projects before we have taken her home to the Med. After that I'm hoping we'll get out house hunting before acquiring another vessel. An old, run down house with a lot of character and potential underneath the dust. Something we both will be able to pour our love into. A little harder for me to get involved in the refit process of a boat, but a house is a different story. We need projects and challenges in life after all.
I hear you Richard, hoping to be there soon soon.
I think it's romantic that Alex is so passionate!!! :)
Run the other direction as fast as you can. It is one thing to look at life with a romantic eye, but it is completely another to enslave yourself into a nightmare. There is no comparison between what Duende needed and what Bowstring needs.
My husband is similar, but he tends to be passionate toward restoring old cars. I think it is a form of creativity, of wanting to bring beauty and usefulness back to something that has been neglected. It can be frustrating, but it is also a joy to see how fulfilled he is when his plans work.
Huge project. But worth it if have time and plenty of cash. I am lucky enough to own a sisterboat - four of these boats were built by Berthon in Lymington, England in 1961 and 1962. Ours is in fab condition - and yes even though I am smitten and therefore biased - it is beautiful and a wonderful boat to sail and spend time in. Real soul.
By the way she is 43' on deck.
Robert Clark was one of the UKs foremost designers with many famous boats to is name. Bowstring has real pedigree.