Decisions, decisions...

A Ninigret, built by Roeboats

Tiernan replied that yes he would be interested in building a Cape Henry, and that he could have it ready for next summer. We were coming to Ireland for summer holidays so we arranged to visit him at his workshop. He is just putting the finishing touches to a 16 ft sharpie and we'll be able to take a look at that boat while we're there. In the meantime I try to find out everything I can about the Cape Henry, and a bit more about Roeboats. 

Tiernan seems to have an interesting and varied background. Comes from a family of furniture makers, lived in Germany for a while, worked on movie sets, has a lifelong interest in all things nautical, and settled in West Cork to start building boats. There is of course another boat builder in West Cork, Liam Hegarty of Oldcourt. But Hegarty's Boatyard specialises in traditional boats built using traditional methods and materials. And while the Cape Henry has traditional looks, she is modern in design, materials, and construction methods. Roeboats have built several small boats in plywood-epoxy and seems like a better fit for this project.

There are articles, blogs, forum threads, and photo albums from around the world dedicated to the building of Cape Henrys, and I have been studying them all. There are Dudley Dix's builder's notes with many pictures from Gary Wallis' build in the UK. There's the Cape Henry Yahoo Group. A design review article from Sailing Magazine in the US. There is the review of Mehalah in issue 215 of Wooden Boat magazine and the owner's woodsmithm.com web page from Connecticut. There's the CKD Boats blog from Dudley's native South Africa, and a French blog that stops after 5 years with a half-finished boat, and an Italian article and sailing video, and a thread on a Russian boat forum, and some really good photo albums from Turkey. Each boat is slightly different, reflecting the taste of the owner, the environment where the boat will be used, how it will be used, and what's available locally to the builder. Building a boat like this gives quite a bit of flexibility since it's not being popped out of a mould and finished on a production line. Of course with that flexibility come a lot of decisions that need to be made. Everything relating to small boats is a compromise, and for someone who has always cruised on bigger boats that can be a bit of a daunting prospect.

While there's quite a bit of information available on the web, for me the mother of all resources on the Cape Henry is a series of detailed articles that were published in Water Craft Magazine. The series follows the build project of Peter Goad, their art editor, over several years. I ordered all the relevent back-issues and spent many evenings musing over the decisions he made to do certain things in a certain way. Obviously a lot of thought went into the process, and many of the choices seemed pertinent. I decided to bring a couple of the issues along to discuss with Tiernan.

Peter Goad's Cape Henry

Several of the modifications to the Water Craft boat deal with adjusting the ergonomics of cockpit and the living space down below. The Cape Henry is a scaled-up version of the Cape Cutter, and for the author some of the dimensions didn't scale well. For example, he widened the cockpit coamings to bring the seat-backs closer to the centre of the boat. This results in less of a stretch to brace one's feet against the opposite seat when heeling. It also has the benefit of giving a more comfortable seating position and one can sit more comfortably on the coamings when hiking out. On the down side, it makes the cockpit seats less suitable for sleeping on, if that is important to you. 

Down below, he wanted to increase the height of the seats, and provide proper seat backs. He wanted a cooker and sink, cool box storage, enclosed heads, and a wet locker. All very desirable features which are very difficult to fit into a twenty-one foot boat. 

He also fitted quite a bit of electrics, such as lights, fixed VHF, chart plotter, AIS receiver, and auto pilot. This is one area which really seems to divide small-boat sailors. On the one hand are those who argue for a simple to non-existant electric system, and on the other hand are those who want all the same features as the big boats. As with most things in life, I figured the truth lay somewhere in-between. But it can be difficult knowing where to draw the line. Especially since most electronic gear these days is sold with a heavy subliminal "safety" message behind it. And since we take our families and friends on our boats it's not hard to justify anything that might increase safety. 

We Google-mapped Tiernan's place, and also brought my scribbled-on-the-back-of-a-Metro-ticket directions. Head towards Ballydehob and turn right at the sign for Corravoley. His blue "Roeboats" van would be parked by the gate. We found it without too much trouble, noted the "Fáilte" sign on the gate, drove down the driveway and parked by the house. Tiernan immediately came out to greet us, accompanied by his dog Bainne. First impressions are very important to me, and I have to say they were good. He showed us around the sharpie, which he had just completed and was sitting on a trailer in front of his workshop. Laura and Bainne took an immediate liking to each other and were playing chase around our car. It was impossible to tell who was chasing who!

We went inside for tea, and looked at the Water Craft articles and pictures of boat interiors that I liked. We talked more about our sailing experience, and how we were hoping to use our boat. We talked about the build process in general, communication, cost, and payment schedules. The communication thing is very important to me as we wouldn't be around much during the build and I really hate surprises. Just ask Eileen. Tiernan reassured me that if we went ahead he would send regular email updates and we could also Skype if needed. I did get the feeling that he would take into account my wishes and allow me to have input into the process, which is also a major attraction in having a boat built as opposed to buying one "off the shelf". 

In any case, there has to be a good amount of trust when undertaking a project like this. Not only are you turning over a big wad of cash, but you are also asking someone to turn your dream into reality. It's not really about the boat, but where the boat will take you. And I'm already picturing us sailing to Cape and Glandore and Glengarriff, trailering to the Shannon, Holland, the Morbihan, the possibilities are endless. WHOA! Slow down there! We thanked Tiernan and said we would mull things over and get back to him by the end of the week. On the way home I asked Eileen what she thought and she said he made a good impression on her and she thought he would be trustworthy. I phoned him on Thursday to say we would go ahead! The start of another big adventure...