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Although I am retired from boatbuilding since 1993, I always said to myself that perhaps I must build one more as an encore, but having a nice well paid job that sees me at home approx 14h30 daily, I never got myself committed....

Looking back at my boatbuilding ventures of the past, I must state that I matured a lot and is a much better boilermaker now than then - and with some new tools and other nice things available nowadays, I know I can do the job 100% better now.
I always made my feeling known about fairing on a hull and I hate this stuff like the plaque, and believe this stuff has no business on a steel hull (elsewhere on my WebPages there are some photos of this crap falling of a hull). Why fair a hull? Why not just build it fair in the first place?

With this in mind, I wanted to prove to myself that it can be done. I want to build a hull with no fairing at all, except for some minor touch-ups where the steel is scratched by handling or transport. Not even the welds will be covered by fairing compound. The transition of the curves in the plates will be super smooth with no visible dent, hollow or dings. The problem though; I must have a boat to build to prove this....

Perhaps it was destiny; sometime ago I answered an email about boat questions and the next thing; I have a boat to build to prove myself right. If there are others out there that share the same sentiments as me about steel boats, and maybe want to have there dream built, please feel free to contact me and we can work something out together.

Dix 43 S/V ‘Waratah’

First of all I want to thank “Stranded Mariner” for giving me the opportunity to build his dream.

When the project starts in earnest, I will make this available as a tutorial exercise of how to build a steel hull from scratch. From opening the plans, lofting, framing etc up to the launch and sea trails, will be covered by full description and plenty of photographs.