Talatasha chapter 3 The Lift Out

Finally she was up on blocks not level and not in the right place I knew they would move me at some time, I don't know what the driver was thinking but anyway that was that . Finally we were out of the water, we built a cover around her and work started .The first job was to start stripping all the fittings of and removing the cross beams. After removing some of the fittings and the two middle beams I started to strip back the paint work, I was pleasantly surprised at what I was seeing the condition of the plywood was in better than I had expected. So I continued what seemed a never ending task of stripping back the paint work and removing the fibre glass taping which bonds the seems together along the plywood joints. I knew the aft deck on both hulls would have to be replaced and strengthened as they were only 6mm ply and flex to much for my liking, When I removed the deck I realized the deck beam was broken and would need To be replaced with a much stronger one and the deck would replaced by 9mm Gaboon ply .So after removing the brass screws from around the edge I set the router to the depth of the ply and cut around the deck leaving a reasonable finished surface as shown in the slide show you can see by clicking on the picture Next I worked my way aft to the main beam and tried to remove it , this took a bit of persuading with a hammer and some wedges it was certainly tight. I then stripped the paint back inside the housing where the beam sits so I could see the condition of the plywood and what I would need to do to make it good, I remember praying it would be ok as to rebuild this part of the boat would not be a 5 minute job.

Talatasha chapter 2

High tide was at 5:30am so after a few beers it was time to get some shut eye, it would be an early start for us as we wanted to make sure we would have plenty of water underneath us on our maiden voyage down the channel. The accommodation inside a Janus 22ft catamaran is hardly spacious to say the least, so bedding down for the night was somewhat cosy, a bit like trying to get two people into the same sleeping bag but (hey we are brothers) some how we managed to get a bit of sleep. It was pitch black when I woke, I popped my head out of the hatch and scrambled out on to the deck, it took a moment to absorb the still and silent eeriness of the creek, it had that coldness about it like a shiver down your spine, but the excitement of spending the next two days sailing around Plymouth Sound soon replaced that hesitant feeling and the hang over we both had. The tide was already on its way out so with haste we slipped the mooring and made our way out and down the creek. We cautiously navigated down the channel, with my brother on the bow illuminating potential hazards with his thousand watt torch he had bought on e-Bay, soon we were passing South Down Marina. Dawn was breaking as we entered the Tamar, finally we were in familiar surroundings and heading out through the passage between Drakes Island and Mount EdgcumbeIt was early in the morning when we arrived at Cawsands and we were both in need of some sustenance, the sun was out and it was a glorious morning, so we pulled up on the beach and had a well deserved breakfast at the Cawsands bay hotel. Back on board we discussed the work that was needed on the boat and any modifications that could be done to improve the comfort and performance. But as the weekend unfolded it became more apparent that things were worse than we expected we planned to spend the next two days sailing around the Plymouth sound. It was not long before the was ringing from concerned family and friends , we arranged to pick them up from Mount Battern Marina, out kids were excited about the new adventure and we spent the day taking our guest for trips around the sound . We had tried to make the boat as presentable as possible but you could clearly see the shock on there faces when we pulled in to the Quay side, I don't think they could see the potential as I did but they were most surprised to see how she performed. The boat was due to come out of the water on the Monday morning at Plymouth Marine Centre in Plymstock , by Saturday evening we were both shattered so we decided to leave her on a mooring for the night. The next day feeling somewhat refreshed we prepared her for the lift , removing as much weight from her as possible.

The story of Talatasha

My brother and I had longed to own our own boat. As children we were raised in Fowey, Cornwall and lived in a small hotel on the waters edge. We were both keen sailors and spent our youth racing dinghies in and around Fowey. It was a great childhood and I wished I could have given my children the same. Once leaving school we went are separate ways and it wasn't until I got married in 1990 that we became close again, we now have a great relationship, a year ago we decided we had waited long enough, it was time to get back to sailing. We had a small budget and large criteria. We were looking for a boat that would make a good weekender, something that was fairly fast, had room for the kids and stable for my wife. It also had to be shallow draught, beach able, very cheap and as I am a boat builder something that needed work on and possibly would add value too. Oh, sleeping accommodation, an engine and a tender was a necessity.Well after a great deal of searching I stumbled across Talatasha, I found her lying in the corner of a boat yard in Millbrook Cornwall. She is a Janus, 22ft Woods design catamaran built in Guernsey 22 years ago. It was within budget and fitted most of our criteria so the sale went ahead and we became proud owners of our lovely boat Talatasha. We had planned to launch her the following week in Millbrook as my brother had to travel down from Manchester. The crane had put her on the mud at low tide and being unsure if she would float I waited anxiously as the tide crept in. Surprisingly, she floated although taking on a small amount of water in both hulls especially around the centre board cases that had been badly repaired before. It was a glorious summers evening when my brother arrived and I had rigged the boat, made her ship shape well as best as I could. We wanted to sail her over the weekend before taking her out of the water in Plymstock to start work on her.

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