F-9AX Seen Stuck In South African House
Frans Loots is nearing completion of his F-9AX in South Africa and writes:Hallo Ian,
You might find the pictures a bit of a variation from the norm. It is my way of fitting a 9.5m whatever 9ax into an 8 meter garage so I could work at home for fitting out. The house was brand new and before we even moved in I asked the builder to bash a 1.5 x 1.5 meter hole in the wall so the boat could fit. The brick layer I believe was stunned at the request to destroy his work. Now one and a half years on the garage has not yet housed a car. The other half of the garage is being used to build the cross beams.
My project has gone well so far, just very slow at times finding the free time to build boats. I should be able to launch in Feb/ March next year. That will make it a three and a half year project at about 2500 hours.
I suppose I am a real amateur backyard boat builder with limited free time and what free time I have is balanced between boatbuilding and raising a young family. Often epoxy is set aside to first go and read a bedtime story or to fix a bicycle tyre. And whatever gets spent on the boat mom wants double for the house. In between I have also rebuilt a hand-me-down Optimist for my son and restored a vintage Finn for myself so as to keep sailing while building.
With the beams completed I almost feel like the boatbuilding is over! I considered the beams to be the final hurdle and I now know that even if I slow right down with the project, the end is in sight. Seems a pity that at the end just as you have finally mastered the skills needed to build a nice boat, it all now goes to waste because you will most probably never tackle such a task again.
I have seen Luke Rademan's F82. It is a beaut.
Kindest regards,
Frans Loots,
St Francis Bay,
South Africa.