The Mini Boat Yard

Things have been moving forward quite a bit in the past weeks. I have finally found a permanent place to build the “big” (Mini 6.50) boat. It’s a 48sqm shed inside a huge industrial hall - and it’s in Berlin, so I don’t have to travel forever to get to it. The one problem this place has is that the shed itself has no roof, which is going to make heating it quite a challenge, but I’ll worry about that next winter.

I’ve moved the dinghy out of my office meeting room into the shed and started adding some basic furniture such a a big table, shelves and a cabinet to lock away the power tools.

In parallel I have been emailing Dudley Dix and Woodtec boats in Greece to in order to get the boat kit ready and shipped to Berlin in the next weeks.

If everything goes to plan (ha!) I can start building in May. Until then I’m hoping to finish the Dinghy - the outside still needs epoxy coating, the whole boat needs to be painted and the seats and buoyancy foam have to be installed.

Lastly I’m planning to do an online video series about the build, so I’ve moved some video gear to the shed as well. The lighting situation at the shed is pretty bad at the moment, so I’ll have to see about that, but I just bought a wireless lav mic so sound should be pretty good.

Next steps:

• set up workshop table
• do a test video
• finish ordering the boat kit
• coat dinghy with epoxy