Sail a Yacht at Least Once in Your Life
No matter what the yatch charter ultimate peculiarities, every boat begins as rolls of mat fiberglass and tubs of hot, red resin. “Laying up the hull” is the job of bearded Arnie Clow. Arnie, muscles bulging under his sleeveless yellow T-shirt, moves back and forth between the two halves of the mold split like the belly of a whale, spreading sheets of fiberglass and swabbing on resin. Five double layers will be laid at the boats edge; the keel will be about 1 1/4, inches thick at completion.
After the necessary three to four weeks of curing, sanding, and buffing, the Sail Yachts are peeled from its red mold and moved “onto the line.” From here, until its final delivery date some six to 12 months later, the boat will remain in a state similar to dry docking and receive the rest of its fittings. Some six to eight boats may be on the line at any one time with up to 90 employees scrambling up and down their sides hammering down floors, screwing on winches, bolting down 10,000-pound keels, and raising the 62-foot masts.
After the rudder mounts, copper bonding (to protect against lightning), fuel and water tanks are screwed into the hull, a one-piece combination deck, deckhouse and cockpit is fastened onto the hull. From here, the different shops — machine, electrical, carpenter, sewing — supply their handmade components according to the customer’s specifications, which are mimeographed and taped to the hull of each boat.
Nothing is left to chance. Operations manager Rusty Bradford, a pencil shoved behind his ear, intones, “It’s not unusual to tear something out if it’s not right the first time.” Even the diesel engines, one of the few parts that Hinckley does not make, are tested on the company’s own dynamometer.
One observer described the Hinckley process this way: “First they build a fiberglass boat and then build a wooden one inside it.” On a completed Hinckley, no exposed fiberglass offends the eye below decks. All walls are paneled in varnishe mahogany or ash and the floor is polished teak with inlaid holly. All fittings are either brass, bronze, or stainless steel.
On this breezy Monday, “Dalliance,” a newly launched gold and navy Hinckley 64, rode majestically in the harbor. Estimated cost? “In the neighborhood” of $1 million.
Above decks she is an impressive sight of neatly furled sails, gleaming steel, spotless white fiberglass, and burnished teak. But below decks, the Dalliance comes into her own.