In the bottom of our garden a new gaffer is taking shape. What inspired the decision to take on a self build ? Well it came about as a result of taking our current boat Sepia to the Netherland last year to join the OGA10. Sepia is a Memory 19 in which we have a huge amount of fun sailing with our Gaffer friends in the Solent OGA. In 2014 we packed her onto a trailer and took her off for two weeks cruising, racing and partying on the Cross Country Tour from Wemeldinge to Den Helder. During the trip we were frequently moored up against a similar size boat from the UK, Step Back in Time owned by friends Tony and Sally Kiddle. We had seen their boat launched at Yogaff a few years ago and had admired it then and during the tour had the opportunity to go below and we liked what we saw. This started a bit of a conversation between myself and David along the lines of ‘could we …. should we’.  In considering the ' could we'  David had had a year at the International Boat Building Training Centre in Lowestoft and had been working as a joiner since then, accumulating the tools required and an enviable shed in our back garden along with the space to build and store the boat.

So skills and equipment were in place and the exercise of pricing up all the bits and adding a contingency ended up with a figure we were prepared to commit to the project from our savings. The ' should we' was a little harder really as we are very happy with our Memory 19 and we certainly didn't want something we couldn't trail or could not afford to keep or run. I have to confess there were times in the run up to the decision when I thought that we already had what we needed but, having a bit more room and more scope for passage making in more challenging conditions, in a bit more comfort did appeal ultimately. Plus the fact that David's face lit up when we talked about it made me realise the time was right.