Attention to detail
It was always going to be a tall order: trying to turn a ‘quick ‘n’ dirty’ epoxy ply kit into a beautifully crafted family heirloom. Not quite as difficult as turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse or a bag of fish ‘n’ chips into a gourmet dish, but not far off.
As soon as Jeremy Butler decided he was going to varnish the inside and the bulwarks of his 14ft Nigel Irens-designed Western Skiff, he ramped up the construction standards of his project by several levels. For what is acceptable on a rough and ready home build, where gaps can be shamelessly filled with great dollops of thickened epoxy and hidden under several layers of paint, suddenly becomes unacceptable if the boat is going to be varnished and all its dirty secrets revealed to the world.
We’ve already seen how this approach has added time to Jeremy’s build: from scarfing the planks rather than finger-jointing them, to taping off the fillets to achieve a neat line
