Boatbuilding by Jo

Well it all started........

9 July 2006

They say that behind every good Schionning Builder is a good wife. Well...assuming that Paul is a good Schionning Builder, yesterday I officially became the "good wife". Paul and I had a small wedding ceremony at 2pm on the 8th of the 7th in the 6th. The "good wife" definition can be attested to because we needed to leave at midday to drive to the Celebrant and Paul was still at the warehouse working on the boat at 11.15am. The ceremony took 30 seconds and there was the awkward bit where we wanted to bunk off to our "Reception", but the celebrant insisted we share a bottle of Spumante' to celebrate....Very nice gesture on their behalf, but we'd planned a no frills wedding with minimal fuss and here we were stuck making chit chat while we tried to swallow the wine. Fortunately the "good wife" came to the rescue and initiated conversation about our boat building. Paul managed to lose 30 minutes before he took a breath. He sure is a passionate husband....when it comes to his passion...Mahna Mahna. I sure am a good wife when it comes to his passion....Now.

We had a lovely wedding reception. I sat in the car sending messages to family advising them we’d just been married, Paul drove listening to the footy on the radio and we headed to Akuna Bay in the Kuring-gai National Park. There is a lovely marina there (no multi-hulls… doh!) where we grabbed a hamburger and a coffee to celebrate our nuptials. We were back home at Gosford by 6pm. Paul was back at the warehouse by 8am Sunday morning. I think he needed to celebrate over some resin and High-Build?

For all of those interested here are a few photos of our wedding day….

 

October 31st 2006

It has been sometime since my last (first) post but I felt compelled to add to our website.

I am sitting upstairs at our warehouse while Paul is putting the final coat of High Build onto Hull #2. He told me to go away because the fumes would overwhelm me. (He's right! I can taste the smell...wow is it strong!!) I don't want to go away because I want to feel involved in our project. Despite not doing heaps of the physical building, I have become a boat builder by osmosis. (or maybe that is just the effect of the High Build fumes?)

We have had a week that included many nice emails from readers all over the world as well as a few visitors to the shed to see the boat. I have a genuine sense of pride for the skills I've seen my husband display. Whist occasionally it feels as though Mahna Mahna is "the other woman" in our marriage, when Paul gets to show people his boat I puff up with pride too. He has amazed me with his dedication to his dream. It is just as much fun for me to watch the boat go together as I'm sure it is for those readers who are contemplating a project similar to this one.

To any partners of dreamers, I can assure you the wait is worth it... anyway, we've still got to overcome my sea-sickness once this baby is built! Thank you to the nice people who take the time to write to us...to quote Rene' from Austria your emails give us "a lot of motivation for continuing".

 

4th February 2007

Finally managed to peel the laptop away from Paul so I can add to my log! We have been lucky enough to have another small sail on a catamaran. We are now up to about 5 times ever on a cat! So far we still like it... and last time I looked we are still building Mahna Mahna.

A concern that I have had for much of the build has been overcoming seasickness when we finally launch. People often ask us what we will do "if we find out we don't like sailing". Both of us doubt this will happen, but in an effort to get on top of this "issue", we have purchased a waterbed. Now each night I get to fall asleep whilst gently rocking on water. Occasionally I have thought there was some slapping on the bridgedeck, but it turned out to be Paul getting up! Just a little tip for those contemplating some sailing lessons on a waterbed... make sure you put the valance in place before the water goes in.

14th October 2007

Remember me? I'm the other half of the boat building team...the one who consistently brings home the bacon to pay for the dream. I have been in hiding for a very long time because I have been harbouring a secret from my in-laws. Paul's family live in Melbourne, so between working and boat building, we haven't seen them since January 2007. What they don't know is that I have been losing weight - a lot of weight! I decided that I didn't want to be a "fat 40 year old" so I needed to do something about it. With the help of Jenny Craig and a personal trainer (and a decent dose of self motivation) I have now lost almost 15kg (over 30lbs). This equates to 20% of my former body weight gone! I'm pretty proud of myself and Paul is delighted that we'll now be able to carry more water onboard! I'll post some before and after shots soon. Anyone at the Schionning Muster next week is welcome to feel my "guns". It may actually be a mandatory for those who come to see our boat on the Thursday.

I get a lot of questions about "how do I convince my wife to let me build a catamaran?" My suggestion is to ensure you picked the right wife in the 1st place! Dreams are subject to change at short notice. My lifelong dream was to turn 40, buy a Harley Davidson motorbike and ride off into the sunset. We adapted my dream to sailing off into the sunset and riding a moped when on land. Let me make it clear that after obtaining my learners permit for a motorbike, I have ridden solo one time. This solo ride scared me SO much that I fogged my own visor with fear - I was hyperventilating! I have decided to change my dream to riding on the back of a scooter with Paul in charge. I'll lean sideways to catch a glimpse of the sunset. Paul got his license last week and in a year is allowed to carry a passenger.

Check in soon for the before and after pics, just waiting on them coming back from the glamour studio but definitely no need to airbrush (this comment was by Paul) !

17th November 2007

It's been over a month since my last post and I've discovered that my in-laws don't read the website! Not one phone call to chat about my weight loss. I'll have to surprise them in person at the Xmas Reveal. Maybe they were waiting for the photographic evidence? See below...

              
 

We have started to learn to sail. Our friend Dennis (owner of 9 Lives) has allowed us to crew for him during Gosford Sailing Club's Wednesday Twilight Sailing Races. Dennis has an Endeavour 24 Mono. I was initially quite nervous about the thought of racing as I imagined a boat tipping on it's side whilst an Alpha male yelled instructions using nautical speak. I am not quite up to speed with all nautical terminology, but I've discovered I've learnt some by osmosis. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. Dennis is the most gentle man and he has been a great teacher... Thanks Dennis! My main task has been Jib Wincher. This is quite a task after 1 hour at the Gym before the races! A few times I have anticipated a gybe (impressing myself here with terminology), so I start to get my rope (string, sheet, whatever!) ready to pull on and Dennis gently reminds me to "set it up on the winch". I'm finding that I still get a little anxious when the Monohull leans over, but again Dennis gently suggests that I sit up on the side. It's amazing the difference when you are not watching the water touching the windows. In our first race we came last due to a mixture of inexperience and overpowered sails that needed changing mid race. In our 2nd race on Wednesday just gone we won our division! The crew consisted of just Dennis, Paul and myself and we experienced every weather condition possible. There was thunder, lightening, rain, heavy winds and sometimes no winds. My next big challenge is sailing without Paul. He'll be away on business for the next race, so we'll see if he's been dragging Dennis and my times down!

At the end of the race we had a small mishap. Paul and I were taking down the sails and we heard a "ping". Paul said "What was that?" I looked down and thought I'd stepped on something. It turns out Paul's wedding ring had slipped off, bounced on the deck (ping) and deflected into the water. We call it his wedding ring, but the truth is I bought it in 2005 as a special gift to celebrate building the boat. You can see from the photo that Paul's wedding ring says "Life".

I gave him a "Life Ring" to symbolize the most important equipment for building a boat together. I figured if you are making a commitment to building a catamaran over 5 years, then it's worthwhile demonstrating my commitment to "life" with Paul. Well as we discovered, Paul's Life Ring wasn't very buoyant! I have bought him a temporary replacement ring, until I can afford to get another special ring made. The new ring is a plain gold band and I had the word "Strife" engraved on the top. He'll be constantly reminded that he threw the expensive ring overboard. Maybe he was trying to upsize his diamond quota? I'm always trying to do the same.

29th November 2007

Twilight sailing last night was "Lady's Skipper Night". I was quite anxious about the race, given that I really don't know how to sail. I took on the challenge and upon arrival at the dock insisted that the crew refer to me as "Aye Aye Captain". Dave from the crew, questioned my authority so I had him swab the decks. Paul has seen me drive, so he knew it was best to obey my every command. (Think white line fever.) The race got off to a great start, me on the tiller with Dennis gently suggesting where I needed to steer the boat. I managed to sail us almost to the 1st Marker when Dennis subtly took the tiller. I was guided by the "Nod, Nod, Wink, Wink" of Dennis to put my hand on the tiller during any parts of the race that had nearby nautical traffic. Let's just say for arguments sake that I co-skippered the race. The end result saw our boat Bubba come second over the line.

At the club after the race we had a very funny occurrence. It came time for presentations and they announced each place getter and made the Lady Skipper stand up. I was dreadfully embarrassed when I had to stand up as Skipper of 2nd place Bubba. Imagine my shock when the 1st place winner wasn't present to collect their prize!!! Suddenly the announcement came that "Jo from Bubba" could come and get the winner's prize as she is here for the presentation. (Actually given the bad week we'd had at work I didn't have the heart to tell them we were only there for the $2 sausage sandwiches!) I got the pleasure of air kissing two old men that I've never laid eyes on before as they gave me a bottle of Champagne and a Cap with the wording "Twilight Winner". I plan on wearing the cap at all future races to scare the opposition. A week is a long time in sailing and I doubt anyone will know that Jo from Bubba really came in 2nd place. Hey! My cap says I'm a winner!

 

22nd January 2008

Well don't I feel like a fool. I had my rant about the In-Laws ignoring my weight loss in previous posts. We have just returned from a 10 day visit with them and I discovered why they didn't see my posts. Let's just say that their computer is SO old that if I started it up today, you may get this page downloaded by this time next year! (Welcome to 2009 Pat and Marie if you're reading this) Who remembers Windows 2000 - yep it was before ME, XP and Vista? As someone who works daily on a computer you do tend to forget that there are still people who don't check their emails every 5 minutes. I wasn't able to do any work from their system as eBay wouldn't load and forget about Internet Banking! I'm completely over the dissin' as their excuse has been verified. Let's just say that after the lovely visit and the European hospitality my weight loss seems to have been put into a reverse spin with less emphasis on the loss and more on the weight if you know what I mean. We start walking again this week.

Paul's 4 year old nephew Patrick was duly impressed with Uncle Paul's Shark Boat. He's an underwater creature nut, so to see photos of a shark painted on a boat was very cool. Little Pat gave us clear instructions on what to do if we saw a snake on his family farm... "Stop, walk backwards slowly and tell me...don't even touch it with your finger" After seeing photos of Paul's Shark Boat, Pat has also included sharks and blue whales in his snake sighting instructions... "If you see a snake or a Great White Shark or a Great Blue Shark or a Blue Whale...stop, walk backwards...." He won't have to tell me that twice if I see a blue whale on the farm!

   

Emily (10) and Georgia (9) had a great time looking through all of our boat building photos too. I took them outside to pace out the size of our boat. Georgia stood near the gate while Emily and myself stepped out 12+ metres. Emily then stayed in her spot while I paced out 7 metres. By the time I'd finished counting they'd gotten bored and were on the trampoline! I'm sure when Uncle Paul invites them to have a holiday on the Great Barrier Reef they'll be more impressed. It's hard for anyone to visualize such a big project, including me, so we'll just have to show them the real thing. Oh and by the way Emily and Georgia... yes your bum does look big in those shorts! Thanks Tyler's for a great holiday!