TARI-ANN launched at Gold River
Aug 23, 2018
Over two years of hard work by Tern Boatworks came to fruition on August 15th with the launch of the motorsailer TARI-ANN at Gold River Marina. There was a big crowd on hand enjoy the sight. The boat’s designer, Laurie McGowan, sent us this interesting note on the background and evolution of this handsome yacht.
“As with our previous co-design, Tom Goodwin’s 27′ ketch CZARINA – which Covey Island Boatbuilders did a lovely job building – we started from the artistic end with TARI-ANN, or with Tom’s sketches and paintings. Tom is a very experienced sailor, and likes simple, workboat-based features on his boats, including many of the details of the “Chesapeake Buy Boats”. These beautiful fish-hauling vessels developed at the start of the motorized era and Tom’s brother, Mikey, owns and works with a Buy Boat that is over 80 years-old – hauling freight between the islands in the Bahamas. Some of these boat’s features include a high stem, deep forefoot, nicely curving sheer, a wheelhouse, shallow draught and a vee bottom. We really worked on developing an efficient and more seaworthy hull shape as well. The interior is really built around the wheelhouse and getting to and from it, though each cabin and each area on the boat has turned out to be very nice places on their own. The ketch rig is for simple motorsailing, with the intent to use the jib and mizzen all the time, and to set the mainsail on long reaches. We’re both happy with the timeless feel of the design, which moves the boat out of the “fashionable” category into a more “easy-to-look-at … forever” one. We both think that that’s a good target to aim for.
The next important step was hammering-out our contract, and it has gone like this on both boats: Tom: “do you think you can design this”? Me: “yep, and for about this much”. Tom: “ok, let’s do it”. It was very stressful (kidding!). We have never signed anything, but have enjoyed being on the same page, so-to-speak, from the start of both boats. Even before we worked on TARI-ANN we would keep in touch about various boat details and how much he was enjoying sailing CZARINA.
The design process has been a little different than on most boats though, in that a lot of the important details were worked out by email and phone, and with sketches from Tom, and increasingly with Bruce Thompson and the Tern crew on the shop floor. That is, a lot of the finish details weren’t designed-first and built-after, but they did a lovely job. It’s hard to keep a handle on weights and their placement this way but having the wheelhouse setup is fairly forgiving as the big weights tend to be in the middle of the boat, or below the wheelhouse by default.
All of us concentrated on having details flow nicely together, and the high workmanship and attention to detail by the crew has resulted in a visual feast in TARI-ANN. It has been a very nice collaboration – working with such a talented shop as Bruce and the Tern Boatworks crew, and with an experienced and artistic client like Tom Goodwin. It takes a lot of vision and resources to build a boat like this today, and I feel fortunate to have played a part in the design of this lovely boat.”
Laurie McGowan
Tern Boatworks have turned out several beautifully built and distinctive boats in the last few years, from an International One Design to a Lobster Yacht. We look forward to following their next project.
www.ternboatworks.com
www.mcgowanmarinedesign.com
All photos credited to: Ed Sulis
