I confess

[Frogsider]

If the UKHBBR was a real club or organised association, with rules, regulations, and stuff like that, I would certainly be thrown out and blackballed for ever.

First, I don't live in Britain, so I fail to qualify for the UK part in the title.

Second, though I have built boats in the past I am not currently building one, nor even particularly close to contemplating starting to build one.  In fact I have just sold the last of my home built boats, so I have only a GRP boat at the moment.

Third, isn't it supposed to be about Rallies?  I haven't attended any - mostly because I rarely go back to UK where they all seem to be held.

Fourth - and worst of all - I have recently deliberately sawn up what was a perfectly restorable old home-built boat (a Miracle dinghy), in order to reclaim all the useful fittings for the restoration and renovation of an old GRP boat (a 1962 Tricorn dinghy). The centreboard from the Miracle became my rudder blade - though I received my comeuppance for this sacrilege when it snapped off, last week, in the notorious "La Jument" tide race near the entrance to the Morbihan Gulf.
   
I have also bought a number of second-hand parts on eBay that I suspected, or had good reason to believe, came from UK home-built boats.  Parts like the centre mainsheet horse from a Fireball, that was still attached to the plywood bits of the hull from which it had been roughly sawn when it arrived here in the post.  I also bought the poor old dead Fireball's boom and spinnaker pole, a kicker winch and jib fairleads from an Enterprise, and various bits of gear from such (probably home-built) boats as a Mirror 16 and a Wayfarer, though some of these I didn't actually use.
 
My two jibs came from a defunct Peter Milne Marauder dinghy, almost certainly home-built and now on the scrap heap.

In summary, I confess to having committed the crime of cannibalism on at least 3 home-built boats in order to save one plastic, factory-built boat.  In my obsession to complete the renovation of an early GRP design of rare pedigree, on a very tight budget, I have become a destroyer rather than a builder of home-built boats.

I submit myself to the UKHBBR's non-existant committee for its disciplinary decision and await news of my punishment.

[alopenboat]

On 15 May 2013 at 4:13, Frogsider [via UK HBBR Forum] wrote:


> Third, isn't it supposed to be about Rallies?  I haven't attended any
> - mostly because I rarely go back to UK where they all seem to be
> held.

This one is easily solved. Announce a rally in your local area and go
to it. If no-one else turns up that is hardly your fault, If someone
else does turn up you have made a new friend and can either start a
branch division of the UKHBBR or go independent and form your own
non-club.

--
Hoping for calm nights

Alastair Law,      
Yeovil, England.
<http://www.little.jim.freeuk.com>          

[Timmo]

Regarding cannibalisation, none use of wood and the practice of restoration rather than scratch building I will speak in your defence...

It is common practice amongst HBBR people to salvage bits from all sources including boats past meriting the effort of repair or restoration. The judge of that merit being the individual concerned.

There are a number of home built boats in the combined HBBR fleet that are made with materials other than just wood. Indeed at least one member goes to quite extraordinary lengths to avoid wood anywhere in his boats.

Again there are other very welcome members of the group whose HBBR credentials are based on having fitted out, refitted or salvaged boats of all types rather than built from scratch. Indeed most of us fully recognise that a restoration job can be more demanding than a new build (witness the Heron that has been awaiting restoration in my garden for over ten years: anyone interested?)

Clearly the only action needed to fully cement your membership of this group is to be part of a rally. Is it France you're based in? If so the waterways of France fascinate me, there must be so many great trips to be done. Indeed I'll be driving around France with the folding canoe on the back of the camper this summer looking for water to float on.  Give us plenty of notice and I'd certainly consider coming across for a rally. Further South we go the better the chance we could actually have decemnt weather!

How about an affiliated FrHBBR?

On 15 May 2013, at 12:13, Frogsider [via UK HBBR Forum] wrote:

If the UKHBBR was a real club or organised association, with rules, regulations, and stuff like that, I would certainly be thrown out and blackballed for ever.

NAML

[Jeremy]

Timmo wrote

Indeed at least one member goes to quite extraordinary lengths to avoid wood anywhere in his boats

Indeed............  However, I'm now compensating for the lack of natural materials in my boats by building a house made almost entirely from wood.  Not only is it timber framed, but it's clad in larch externally, has oak joinery throughout and is even insulated with wood (in the form of old newspapers turned to fluff).  Only the ground floor is non-wood (if you stretch the definition of wood to include grass, as all the "timber" floors are actually bamboo).