The Dream

Our story starts in early 1994. I was working as a Quality Engineer for a company that made parts for cars. Ann was working as a teacher in a local school. One day over lunch I was again very fed up and my work colleague John asked me what I really wanted to do. I said that I would like to see the world and enjoy a more simple life. To be honest I did not really know what I wanted. John was a keen sailor and was always going on about owning a yacht and sailing it to warmer climates. I had never been sailing so did not understand the attraction.

Well John gave me a book to read called “Voyaging on a small income” by Annie Hills. This book gave me the inspiration to change my life for ever. I took it home and read it over the weekend. I could not put it down. Annie talked about their way of life. They built their own yacht, invested some money and lived off the income the money produced. This sounded fantastic. This is what I wanted to do. Ann was away on a school trip. She arrived back on the Monday evening and I raved on about sailing, boat building, living on a small income and how we could do the same. No more work, no more office or school. It was the perfect solution. What did she think?

She told me to grow up. Nobody could do this, not me anyway I had no sailing experience. No boat building experience or qualifications. However, she did promise to read the book. This was a start I thought and left her to it. Meanwhile I started to read books on boat building, sailing, voyaging in fact everything I could get my hands on which had anything to do with boats, sailing and the building of them. I also checked out sailing schools and courses so we could try this sailing stuff for real.

Ann finished the book and agreed that it was a very nice idea. I suggested we booked ourselves on a five day competent crew course to see if we liked the sailing life. She agreed and we booked a course in June with Westfleet Cruising in Nayland in Pembrokeshire. June arrived and we drove up to Nayland. Peter George welcomed us onto his Sigma 38 “Phoenix 2”. This was great at last a real yacht. We were joined by another couple Julie and Mark and Paul who was handicapped by having no legs.

We were briefed on the safety gear on board where the seacock were and how to switch them on and off. The workings of the toilette were demonstrated. Ann asked where the shower was and Peter proudly presented her with the onboard showering facilities. Ann was not amused as it seemed to be in the same compartment as the toilette. I fact the shower was the toilette there was no curtain or cubicle to stop the water wetting the whole compartment. Peter advised that she not worry about it but that she helped get the yacht underway. We set off into the Haven with Mark at the helm. Mark was a experienced sailor and was here to take his Practical Coastal Skippers Test. He would be in charge of the vessel for the week and do all the things skippers do so he could get the practice for his exam which was to be held on our final day on board.

We had a wonderful time, the sun shone for the whole week, the breeze was never over force 4 and the Sigma sailed like a dream. I loved it. Ann loved it. We always anchored for the night as Peter liked us to know what cruising was about. Not a day sail with a marina berth at the end of it. We sailed to Tenby and anchored there for the night visiting the local pub for a well earned drink. Ann said she wanted to use the shower so in she went and Peter shouted that she was only allowed to shower for one minute as he only had a 40 gallon fresh water tank. Ann was not amused she stormed out of the shower/toilette compartment and announced that she would be smelly like the rest of us. We sailed to Skoma Island and watched the wildlife in their native habitat. It was wonderful and Ann loved it. This is it we thought this is what we should be doing instead of working our socks of getting nowhere.

The final day arrived and Mark passed his Coastal Skipper. Ann and I passed our competent crew. We booked again for the following year to do our Day Skipper practical.


When we arrived home we worked out a plan of action. We needed a boat so we went to the boat show and looked at everything afloat and on the hard. We like them all. However, getting the £150,000 to £300,000 to buy one was not in our budget. All the layouts in these of the shelf yachts were designed for weekend sailing or even holiday sailing not for living on board. Most of the yachts in our range had not enough water capacity let alone any storage capacity for all those items you need. It was back to the drawing board.

Deciding on the Yacht for us

There was a lot of discussion going on over the next few months. Finally we came to the conclusion that the only way we were going to get the perfect yacht for us was to have one built or to build one our self. I went on the search for a good design. Here again John was helpful he had read lots of books about boats and he gave me a copy of Joshua Slocums “Sailing alone around the world”. I read it with fascination. What a story and what a yacht. Meanwhile we visited the London Boat Show. Here I found Bruce Roberts book “Spray, The ultimate Cruising Boat this was read, re-read and read again. I now firmly believed that a Spray type boat was the one for us. We got in contact with Bruce Roberts UK and asked some advice. They were very helpful and we came to the conclusion that a 38 foot Spray was the right size for us. The reasons were as follows:

1. The yacht would be under 12 meters. We had looked at marina pricing and the cut off for getting into more expensive mooring costs were the 12 meter mark.
2. 12 meters seemed to be the cut of point were one needed more expensive equipment such as navigation lights, bigger winches, cleats, windlass, anchors, chain, mooring warp etc etc.
3. Having sailed a Sigma 38 we thought we could handle this size of yacht.
4. The Spray 38 had large enough volume to carry all of our belongings.
5. The Spray 38 size seemed to be one most people chose for building.

We ordered the study plans for Bruce Roberts UK and two weeks later they arrived. The first thing I did was to take them down to Bristol to get a rough quote on what it would cost to have it built. £180000 was the answer so I spent the next month pouring over the plans costing all of the components that I thought we needed. This took hours and hours of work but finally I came up with a figure. £45000 to build her complete. Wow. This was a cost we could afford. Ann was delighted. Our Plan was finalised and we bought the full plans for a Spray 38 from Bruce Roberts UK. Total cost of the plans £620.00.

Steel Kit and Build location

The date now was May 1995 and we decided that we needed to save around £10,000 to get the project under way. This money was for the steel for the hull and we decided not to eat out anymore, everything was put on hold. One year later we had saved over £5000. We then made the acquaintance of Don Fuller Love, Managing Director of Steel Kit Ltd in Aberystwyth. His company took a yacht plan and turned them into a steel kit. This kit would fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. It would cut the time it would take to build the hull to a third. Wow. Was I interested, you bet. Off we went to visit his company. They did all this on a CAD (Computer Aided Design) system which turned the paper drawings into a 3D model on the computer which in turn cut up the plates and frames into a flat pack system that was similar to a flat pack wardrobe you can buy in shops. I was very impressed. This was the way to build a hull. No cutting, no lofting just pick up the pieces and slot them together.

We negotiated with Don and he made us an offer we could not refuse. The steel alone would cost me £7,000 from a steel stockist and Don was offering a complete hull kit for £9,500. We ordered it in November 1996. Delivery was to be in June 1997. We gave him a deposit and negotiated staged payments. We drove home hoping we had done the right thing. In April 1997 I searched for a location to build our yacht. I was looking to build inside a building but could not find anywhere

Over the next four months we made our payments at the dates specified and the delivery date was looming. Then out of the blue we had a phone call from Don stating that he could not meet the delivery date as there were problems with the steel supplier he amended the delivery date to the end of July 1997. OK I thought problems do happen. July came and passes no delivery. The steel was to be plasma cut in Holland and eventually Don Fuller Love (now renamed Don Fuller S**t) admitted that he had a cash flow problem, that our kit was the first yacht kit he had done and that he would do his best to get the kit to us by the 1st of September. I was not a happy bunny. All sort of thoughts went through my head. Was Steel Kit going bust? Was Fuller S**t sorry Love ripping us off? What was going on? I decided to call Harry, Don’s CAD designer he told me the truth. Don had not paid his suppliers and they were not starting any other work for them until he paid up. Steel Kit was BROKE. Our money was all tied up except for the final £2,000 we were to pay on delivery.

Ann and I were very worried. Was this the end? How were we going to save up another £10,000? Harry gave me the number for the company in Holland. They said they would cut the plate and deliver it directly to me if I paid them the remaining money. I agreed. Delivery was to be on the 30 September 1997. It had been a worrying time but all was well.

It was getting very close to the revised delivery date of the steel kit and I had no build site. I had the chance to rent a section of an old aircraft hanger on Weston Super Mare airfield but they wanted £3000 per year for this which I thought was very expensive. Uphill Boat Yard only wanted £600 per year but it was outside.

I thought this was it, I only needed the spot for 12 months so I went ahead. My father helped me put in a armored cable from the power supply box to the build site. It was only about 20 meters long so it was thought that there would be no problems. After this was complete I placed concrete slabs onto the ground to level the ground. Angle steel sections were placed onto these slabs to provide a base to build on.