why Yacht Finish?

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Wansworth

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Why is there this need to finish the interiors of yachts to such high specifications,pefectly mitred joints,doors that fit ,matching timbers etc,in my opinion a more commercial finishis more relaxing and less demanding ,why does it all have to be so perfect.Most working boats manage ed with marginal equipment and their interiors seemed inviting.
 
At my first dabble with this boat business it was definitely more basic - like camping. There was also a lot more galvanised stuff, bits of string etc. Just a few boats had fancy finishes for the aristos eg Camper & Nicks stuff. I was surprised to see what had become expected when I had another go. All that joinery costs an arm and a leg. Also the apparent quality of construction seems to have to approach aircraft standard rather than fishing boat. The surface aesthetic is penthouse meets flight deck.
Boats are pretty basic things for most of us - the engines are crude, grp hulls are a doddle to repair, the systems have only got fancier to cope with demand for showers, fridges etc and so on. I'll go for painted softwood on my boat anyway, but keeep the bits of mahog that are there.
 
On one boat in this months Cruising World the wood had been"hand selected",there is no end to it,give me hand selected t&g with varnished mahogany made by a person more than perfect machined woodwork;passed off as "hand crafted" !!!!
 
All of this is the result of "marketing"! The most obvious form of this marketing is the Boat Show, where boat factories [not boatyards any more] compete with each other for the attention of would-be-boat-owner's wives, not the blokes. Thus we find that upholstery fabrics rate more importantly than righting moments. You can't tell if the hull has a sea-kindly motion when it is in a vast hall, but she can see if the heads looks inviting and easy to clean. He wants a boat, she wants a weekend cottage, so they have a compromise. I'd better stop before I have a blood-pressure problem!
Peter.
 
GRP is a doddle to repair??? Not in my experience it isn't. Not stucturally anyway, or getting it perfect cosmetically. But I agree in some ways, perfection in interiors is difficulot if not expensive to achieve. Mine is more functional.
 
Umm.

I ripped out the entire insides of my boat, bulkhead, sole bearers and all. and started again. (it had done 58 years, and it needed it)

Most of the new interior was made my me (OK, it's iroko, oak and teak, not softwood and there is no plywood or veneer anywhere, but it still looks, dare we say hand made... ) but some of it was made by a very good boatyard.

Guess which sole panel over a seacock I can't lift at this time of year, cos it fits too perfectly?

Not one of the ones I made...
 
Mirelle,To my mind thats how it should be,imperfections add humanity,not talking bodging, but something wrought by hand will always have blemishes....personally I have tendency to bodgging,making things using nails which is in it way ok because nailing was the basis of boatbuilding
 
I was comparing staring at a garboard on a gaff cutter ages ago with putting in a perfectly sound repair right where rudder log meets skin on current boat - it was just grp stuff, semi skilled when all's said and done. Topside repairs are another kettle but then we're back to fishing boat finish if I'm involved.
 
That is exactly the thought that
I went through when I started restoring/reconstructing my 1880s gaff cutter. She had been bodged about and altered over decades. I set myself the overall objective of reconstructing the boat to how it MIGHT have looked originally, but given the passage of time. I deliberately tried to reuse as much of the salvaged wood as possible, and used secondhand reclaimed timber from other sources as a preference. I was not bothered about old nail holes, a bit of woodworm, evidence of previous fittings, etc - to me it all adds character. I know the "character" is a bit of a fake, because I have carefully created it as much as I have preserved the original, but as I near completion, I think I can say it has worked.
If an observer now says "gosh, that's an OLD boat!" I shall be satisfied. If they can't tell whether it's an imaculately over-restored original, or a total replica, that would to me be a shame.

Incidentally, I've noticed the same phenomenon in old cars. My 1964 Triumph 2000 is scruffy and unrestored. But it turns heads, and gets people remembering the old days. A perfectly restored car is just another Saturday afternoon entrant at a vintage show, but the sight of an old one in daily use warms the heart.
 
I think if the boat started life as a "yacht" then "yacht finish" is how she should remain, and if she started life as a working boat, that's the finish she should keep.

I remember being on the slip at Buckie having the last stages of my "yacht finish" completed for the year when a fishing boat was hauled out. In the space of a couple of tides they'd changed a couple of planks, done some welding on the rudder, painted the new bits, antifouled, and back in the water. 24 hours later when I was on my way the casing and all the metal bits had been painted, spring refit, 48 hours, done!

Thinking of Mirelle's seacock panel, on that boat I had a lazarette hatch, you could pull on it, heave, use as much muscle as you liked and the hatch wouldn't lift, place the lightest of light feather touches on one of the sides and up she'd come easy as anything. Never needed to lock it.
 
I think that's a good distinction John, between working boat and yacht.
However, I suspect that particulary amongst smaller boats from long ago, there was an intermediate category, of cheaply made craft based on working boat principles, but made by/for people who didn't want or couldn't afford a "yacht", but did want to go boating. (Remember the Kaiser's derogatory remark about the Prince of Wales - "he's gone boating with his grocer" ?)
Certainly some of the original construction used in mine was not up to yacht standard, but perfectly sturdy and serviceable none the less. Eg the cabin sides were not dovetailed at the corners, or let into a corner post, but just nailed together and covered with a brass corner plate. It was good enough to last a hundred years, but not particularly beautiful.
There was no separate covering board - the decking, roughly sawn planks about a foot wide, were just nailed onto the top strake and then sawn off and canvassed.
So when rebuilding the deck and cabin top, I have improved in general construction quality, but not been too fussy in trying to recreate a "yacht" that probably never existed.
 
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