As I work in the oil industry in a rotation system, this was the only guy with well-known quality assured work that accepted to work with me under my proposed conditions.
He is very good with wood, he has its own wood of top quality and he likes non-conventional boat design. He made the boat structure based on a hull design that I bought from a Brazilian naval architect; I changed the boat length and living quarters and made the engineering. I am not a carpenter nor did I have the time to build everything on my own. Apart from that he would stop from working in my boat when the money was short. In 2009 and 2010 we barely did anything on the boat. Yet that was part of the deal.
During that time he worked in other boats.
Why I did this? Because I wanted a trawler just like the ones my Granddad use to build when I was born, a heavy displacement boat for cruising, literally fit for my purposes, and that does not exist in Brazil. It has to be made on order. There are shipyards that work on order but they do not stop when you do not have money, they don’t have passion for their work.
This people who help me build my boat, they are unique in the sense on how they approach their work. That is hard to find and, in my particular case, I could only find it inside the country.
Originally, my boat can be considered a wood epoxy, but it isn’t. What I really have is a double hull wood/FG. The only resin used to construct my boat was epoxy resin. The thickness of my hull goes from 4 ¾” laminated W / 1” FG on keel to 1” W/ ¾” FG in the thinnest part of the hull. Where would I get such robust structure?
Around the building site, within less than 15 miles, there is a FG factory with all kinds of math, woven, resins, fills, etc. The wood suppliers are next door. The stainless steel metallurgies are around here. The builder of the propeller and power section is at walking distance, per say.
The area is considered the best place in Brazil to find good professionals in all fields
As I was not being present every time, I had to have confidence that my boat for which I was putting all I have saved in 34 years of work, was going to be built properly. That’s why I ended up so far inland and so far from home!
