August 8. 2014
$5,000 worth of beautiful Bruynzeel marine plywood showed up at my shop today, so I guess I’d better get going on a project that’s been in the planning stages for a long time: building Tardis, a 28-foot “maxi trailerable” designed by Mark Smaalders (www.smaalders.net/yacht_design).
There are permanent pages at the top of this blog explaining how this project came about and why I picked this boat.
I have learned much of what I know about boatbuilding and cruising from the hundreds of people who take the time to share their experiences via the Internet. So I want to share the ups and downs and progress and speed bumps on this project, which might take a while, since tackling a 28-footer by myself is by far the biggest boatbuilding task I’ve ever taken on.
Okay, so what’s with the name:
Those who are familiar with the popular British science fiction series “Dr. Who” (absolute favorite show of my son John and his Uncle Tim) will understand immediately why a little boat with big boat plans is named Tardis.
For the uninitiated:
Tardis is the acronym for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. The “Tardis” in the show is a spaceship and time machine that takes Dr. Who to amazing adventures. But it doesn’t look at all like a spaceship, being modeled on a 1950’s era English public safety box, telephone booths spotted around the countryside in an early version of 911. (If “telephone booth” is an unfamiliar term, this blog may not be for you.) Anyway, when you go into the Tardis it is humongous — a giant room full of controls, engines, living quarters, a bowling alley and a pool. That’s what trailerable trawlers are supposed to be — small outside, all the comforts of home inside.
One of the charms of the show is that the good Doctor is accompanied on his travels by a series of young, smokin’ hot English lasses. My wife Molly says that is not the plan with this Tardis.
The Original Tardis
The Tardis Project 
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