Dimer2 requested info on my last two builds. I built my first boat, a canoe at the age of 14. then a 16ft cabin cruiser at 16 then many little boats. I built "Flamingo" pics attached twice starting in 1979 when I was 29 and working in East Africa. this buils was 400 miles from the sea on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.
It was completed in 1981 and dragged to the coast through the bush (A repeat of the Africa Queen and even in the same country) She was originally planked in plywood sheeted in fiberglass but this turned out to be of inferior grade and I re-planked her hull in solid teak after only 9 months in the water. We then cruised her extensively in the Indian Ocean until we brought her home to Ireland in 1987. A year later we had a fire on board which destroyed the interior and all that was left really was the solid teak hull so I continued the rebuild with new cabins and wheelhouse and laid teak deck, thus completing the second build.
Three years ago some joker berthed beside my decided to try an insurance scam by burning his own boat and totally charred the side of Flamingo. On evaluation I decided that it was more work to repair than to start a new boat and as the weather conditions etc. were not really suitable for sailing I decided to go for a Trawled yacht instead. Sadly we broke up Flamingo to harvest as much as possible from her to use in the new boat.
