THE YEARS JUST sailed by, explains Jean-Pierre Turcotte.
Fifteen years of planning, designing, logging, hammering, and perfecting have created Turcotte's ultimate treasure-- a 46 foot custom-built and designed sailboat And now the boat is finally ready to hit the water.
The hull, named Amitič4, meaning friendship in French, was christened off Prince Rupert's shores last week
Visions of building his own sailboat first bobbed in Turcotte's head 20 years ago while he was working as a lighthouse keeper on Triple Island. As he watched the waves roll by he dreamed of designing his own vessel.
"From the moment I started sailing, it grabbed me," he said thinking back to his childhood days sailing on Lake Simcoe in Ontario. "I've always wanted to get back to it" With time on his hands at the lighthouse, Turcotte read book after book on boat building.
"I learned from the experts-- in books," he said, smiling. "My library is extensive."
Then one day he thought, "it's now or never." That decision changed the next 15 years of his life.
It took him and American designer Nathan Smith two years just to draw up blueprints for his cutter yawl auxiliary.
After the plans were drawn, Turcotte started logging in 1982 at Rainbow Lake. He was after Alaskan yellow cedar because he says it's the best boat building timber in the world. When he found standing dead trees at the lake-- he needed very dry wood-- he was ecstatic.
"It was meant for me," he said. "It was primo."
Soon after he cut down the trees, he built a workshop in New Remo and drew his plans to full size. Ever since then he's been busy setting and cutting molds, planking, adding fixtures and painting.
"It's a Northwest boat, made of all regional materials," he said.
More than 80 people have helped him over the years, and without them Turcotte says he would be way behind schedule.
Initially Turcotte estimated the boat would cost him Can$65,000. But when he popped over the Can$120,000 mark, his plans for the boat changed.
He originally wanted to use the boat for his own pleasure, but as he spent more money he decided to use the boat as a charter for people who wanted to tour around the Northwest coast.
"As I spent more money, I realized I had to start making money off it"' he said. "And that meant spending more money." That's because in order to use the boat for business purposes, it had to be up-graded to meet certain (Coast Guard) standards.
Unrigged and without electronics, Turcotte estimates the boat's worth at Can$350,000. It sleeps. eight people comfortably and its got all the necessary amenities (kitchen, beds, washroom).
Now that his labour of love is complete, Turcotte is as proud of his determination as he is of his boat. "I've been challenged by it," he said. "I've sworn at it a couple of times. But every time there's been a problem, things have turned out better than I ever imagined."
