The WoodenBoat Show

July 5, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,743

The WoodenBoat Show was as good as I had hoped it would be — fun, exhilarating and a great showcase for a boat that’s really pretty unique.

The best part was having Mark Smaalders, her designer, and his partner Christine come all the way from the San Juan Islands to stay with us for the whole show.  They are delightful people — sailors, writers, designers and interesting in every way.  And when a talk-your-leg-off, know-it-all would show up at the boat I could always pass him off to Mark:  “That’s an unusual observation.  Here’s Mark Smaalder’s the boat’s designer who would really be interested in talking to you about that.”  For about an hour.

I can truthfully say that the Tardis garnered as much interest as any boat in the I Built It Myself area.  Of course she was bigger than all the others, but people could really see themselves on a small cruiser just like this.  Young people love the boat because to them it’s kid size — a little house that you can live in on the water.   Both Mark and I hope to see more Olga 28’s cruising before too long, since we had some serious builders come to the show to check her out.  And at least a half-dozen of you followers showed up to take the Grand Tour.

It was great for me to have a support crew at the Show (Mark, Christine, John and Molly) because I was really tired after all the preparation and getting the boat out of the water, up to the show, set up for the show and back in the water over a frantic six days.

We think something like 25% of the people actually understood the name, and they thought it was great.  People would come by and yell out — “Little outside, big inside, right?” or “Time and Relative Dimension at Sea?”

The trip back from Mystic was wonderful and the boat performed beautifully despite a few mishaps.  But that’s for a future post.

Tardis rigged up for the show

Joh installs the figurehead and Looper burgee.

John built a platform so folks could check the boat out without climbing a ladder.

Platform in action.

It was like this for three days.

Support crew hard at work.

“Yup, just about three years.” “I’d say maybe $80,000 in equipment and materials.”

IBIM winner — an absolutely perfect Glenn L Malahini. 20 coats of automotive clearcoat never hurts.

32 boats this year at IBIM — great boats and very well-attended.