Finding somewhere to build the Golant Gaffer was quite a challenge. It would have been much simpler to find the room and then pick a boat to fit. However, I had my heart set on the Golant Gaffer for reasons I have outlined on the Golant Gaffer page.
Roger Dongray says that he built Irena, the first Golant Gaffer, in a shed measuring 6.7m x 4m and I set this as my minimum space. I don’t have a convenient space to set up even a tent with this floor area at home – even our double garage wouldn’t work for me (and we have the unusual practice of keeping cars in the garage).
I did manage to squeeze a workshop out of the way at the side of the house. The shed is about 1m wide at the narrow end and 1.4m wide at the door end (our fence bends and so the shed does too) by about 5.1m long.
I spent quite some time planning how to make the space work, keeping one side wall completely clear so that I can actually move, and the other with a french cleat system to hang all my hand tools.
You can just about see my arrangement in the picture. The workbench is fixed. All power tools are on wheels. The drill press swings out from the wall. At the far end there is enough space to pull out one at a time: a trolley with grinding wheel, the bandsaw or table saw (now moved to boat shed).
There is room to work on anything under a metre wide, although you do need to take the time to set up for each job and put everything back in its place afterwards.
After a long time looking for spare barns (never found one), double garages (usually too small), industrial premises (too expensive), my brother-in-law came up trumps by offering to lend me a patch of his industrial premises. The boat building project started with shed building.
The storage shed arrived on a pallet, all ready to be assembled. At 9m x 6m it is more than I need. Brother-in-law wants there to be a useful building when I give back the space.
The instructions say that 4 people can erect the building in 4 days. It took me about 6 weeks working hard but not full time. And I didn’t make too many mistakes.
And finally somewhere to build my boat. Plenty of space. I can come and go; lock it and leave it. What is not to like!