What’s it to be?

The idea of building a boat was rattling around in my mind, and browsing the Jordan website allowed me to home in on what I wanted to do. At about that time, we were on the Chichester Art Trail and visited an artist in Hayling Island. She lived not far from the lifeboat station, and her husband had a kayak which he launched from the garden. It turned out that their son was in the middle of building an Iain Oughtred design from a Jordan kit, and enthused about the fit and finish of the kit parts, which were CNC cut to great accuracy.

This sounded more like it, so I started to look more seriously. The parameters were simple. 12 foot. Clinker. Single-handed, but enough for two when my non-sailing wife wanted to come on a picnic. Easily managed rig.

As well as the Dinghy Show, I like to go to the Southampton Boat Show, and they have a ‘classic’ section where traditional builders peddle their wares. I happened across Adrian Donovan, who was exhibiting ‘Cadfael’, a 12 footer built from a Jordan kit from a design by Francois Vivier. Being a professional boatbuilder, Adrian had made quite a few tweaks to the build, but the basic design was very attractive.

‘Cadfael’ at the Southampton Boat Show

‘Cadfael’ is a Morbic 12, and I knew right away that this would fit the bill, even though I could only dream of achieving the same finish. I contacted Francois Vivier by email, and in no time, I had downloaded the plans and a building manual. Although these were quite daunting, it all seemed very logical and not beyond my capabilities.

The next step was contacting Alec Jordan, who was very helpful, and the order for the kit was placed. No going back now!