Jaht From The Back Yard

July 31st, 2011

If you build it…. it will float. It’s the culmination of a life-long dream – a 36ft sail boat, built by one man, in his back garden.

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Timber from the 1987 storms were used for the bulkheads. “It was available at low prices, and might have been wasted if it wasn’t used,” says Tolhurst.

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In order to finance the boat I had to work outside the farm. I took on building jobs that often involved lead, which I collected over 20 years. I only had to buy the final tonne. To buy all of it would have cost around £5,000”

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“It first began to look like a boat when the frame was upside down. In some ways I liked it more then than I do now. You could see its skeleton and the lines beginning to emerge, which was so seductive. I could imagine the finished boat at that point, and thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be done in three or four years’”

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