Seawater & Sawdust
by Rachel Atkins 27 Nov 2020 13:52 UTC
Out now: the intriguing journey of two pensioners who designed and built from scratch a 30-foot wooden motorboat.
With a combined age of more than 120 years, Tom and Lorraine Owen set about the custom build of their wooden motorboat Thea in March 2015. Seawater and Sawdust follows their journey from inception and planning to building and on to launch in December 2016, documenting their celebrations and milestones as well as their mistakes and mishaps.
The couple of 37 years were no beginners at boat-building; they had built their first boat together when they were in their thirties and a second in their forties. Even so, tackling a project of this size in retirement was ambitious, to say the least. Suffering a subdural haematoma from an airborne scrap of timber (Tom) and undergoing a full hip replacement (Lorraine) mid-build, Team Owen were dealt their fair share of obstacles and interruptions along the way. But they exceeded all expectations with such an exceptional end result. Thea became the last boat to be built and launched at the historic Philips Shipyard, now Noss on Dart Marina, and she has carried Tom and Lorraine some 1,500 nautical miles in the three summers since.
On transitioning to motor from sail, Lorraine expresses in the afterword: "We had some qualms about taking the plunge over to the 'dark side' because there can be a divide between the owners of sailboats and the owners of motorboats. Perhaps because Thea is such a classic design we have not found this to be the case, much to our relief. I'm pretty sure that we've extended our cruising life by making the change now—before we were pushed!"
Seawater and Sawdust (30 October 2020; £24.99; hardback) is self-published by Tom & Lorraine Owen. Paperback (£19.99) and eBook editions are publishing simultaneously. It is available to buy from all reputable book and eBook websites worldwide. Order your copy here.
About the authors
Tom Owen started his boat-building career aged 14 and hasn't looked back. Entirely self-taught, he has designed and built three cruising boats from scratch and renovated countless others. Having never been on a small boat before she met Tom, Lorraine Owen took to cruising like a duck to water and certainly hasn't looked back either. The couple married in 1983 and have lived on the Devon coast ever since.