32 Foot Motor Cruiser Launched
01 Jun 2007
Ashley Cranfield is an experienced seaman and fisherman from Victor Harbour in SA who commisioned the lines of Kashmir in 2001.He knew exactly what he wanted. He sent me some sketches and a photograph of JERICHO a "downeaster' from Maine in USA to get me on the straight and narrow. My tutors in yacht design came from there and I knew of the great qualities of the hullform so I was pleased to go to work on the project.
After the design work was done, Ashley went to work lofting the lines and setting up the moulds and building frames. He then skinned her in strip planking he had acquired from all over the country and milled and seasoned himself. We consulted during the project and Janet made a beautiful model for friends to appreciate that the space in the front garden was being used to create something beautiful and was not there simply to avoid mowing the lawn.
And so it was too, as work proceeded the skill and care he had put into the project paid off. This most beautiful example of the shipwrights art was launched in December 2006 and she is a credit to both of them. On launching the bloke driving theTravel Lift told Ashley that the weight his sensors recorded was almost spot on with the design mass calculations. This result is a credit to the builder -some clients building boats like this tend to let the work run away with them and the vessel ends up far above the mass calculations. She will give Ashley and Janet many happy days afloat in a boat of which they can be justly proud.
