Hawk is cruising to completion

We’re cruising to the final stages of Hawk’s construction now, with all hands on deck. Work has gone to plan so far, with excellent progress being made by the team here over the past month. Here’s what they’ve been up to...

Jeff has completed almost all the carpentry; there’s just one bedroom to do. We’ve planned a flexible layout for the rear bedroom, similar to Hobby’s: either two 2ft single beds or one 4ft double bed, with a large wardrobe and generous storage drawers under both beds.

Sarah is busy varnishing the wood in the kitchen/ lounge area. She’s putting on coat after coat, to get the required super finish. Or maybe it’s because she’s putting OFF her next job – painting the detailed white ceiling panels. If you read our October update on Hawk, you’ll recall that Sarah’s dreading those fiddly, hard-to-reach areas. Jeff and Alasdair are still in trouble for coming up with this new, painted design (inspired by famous Dutch boat builders like K&M Yacht Building).

Meanwhile, Alasdair has been staying out of the way, concentrating on installing the engine, wiring the battery and fitting the heating system.

Externally, Hawk looks the business. All the windows are fitted and every bit of exterior paintwork will gleam once we’ve washed off the workshop dust (using a two-pack yacht enamel always delivers great results for us). Before Christmas, we expect to have completed the woodwork in the rear bedroom and finished installing the engine. And Sarah hopes to be done with the varnishing and painting – with the exception of the rear bedroom. She’ll look forward to that in the New Year.

And you thought we just sat on a tropical beach all winter!

We'll need a holiday after this - though possibly not on Hawk.