The launch of Fram marked a major milestone, but not the end of construction. From her new berth behind our house, the build continued—slowly, weather-dependent, and increasingly influenced by fatigue and life beyond the project.

Leaving the workshop

This section covers the launch of Fram’s sail-ready hull and the subsequent journey to her berth in our home harbour. At the time, Fram was still far from finished. However, her berth lies directly adjacent to the garden of our house. From that moment on, construction continued there as much as possible, with the boat lying outside in the water.

At least, that was the idea.

For interior work this posed few problems, but exterior work proved to be highly weather-dependent. And, inevitably, there was also something else setting in: plain old building fatigue.

The timeline after the launch is not a straight line. Progress alternated with long pauses, detours, and other commitments. Those “distractions” are part of the story—and they explain why the final completion took much longer than planned.

Contents

• The launch with video and ~111 photos
• Distractions (see below)
• Final Yard Period – Painting and Completion ~142 photos

Distractions

Easter 2018 was a great milestone. More than 10,000 hours of building had finally led to the launch of Fram. Wow—Fram is finally floating. The final years of construction were extremely demanding. I worked 60–70 hours per week at my regular job and spent another 24 hours each weekend working on Fram. Eventually, the pressure increased significantly when the building where the boat was under construction was sold. I did not want to relocate the project, so I finished the boat just far enough to allow her to sail independently to the jetty behind our house, where the remaining work could be completed at a more relaxed pace.

After the festive launch and some recovery from the previous hectic period, there was suddenly time again for social activities—something I had hardly had for many years. As a result, progress on the project almost came to a standstill. I had lost focus and motivation.

Other projects presented themselves, such as renovations at our son’s and daughter’s homes. It was also refreshing to do something other than boat building. The pressure to finish Fram had disappeared. I started sailing again with friends and joined long sea voyages to Spain,Greece, Svalbard, Jan Mayen, Greenland and Iceland. We even reached the edge of the North Pole ice. Meanwhile, Fram lay unused and unfinished in her berth.

From the start, it was clear that Fram would eventually have to return to a shed. Final painting still had to be done, the flange around the beam connections to the floats needed tidying up, and several through-hull fittings had to be installed for the toilet and watermaker. A transducer for log and depth was also still missing.

Renting space in a shed is expensive, so construction time had to be limited. As much work as possible was therefore done while the boat was in the water behind our house. This included making and fitting fairings to the front of the floats and reinforcing the beam flanges. Most of this work was carried out from a dinghy—not very comfortable, but workable.

The dinghy didn't survived.

Planning this next construction phase was repeatedly postponed: first due to a lack of focus and motivation, then because of the COVID situation, and later because of several excellent long distance sailing trips with friends.

During this period, I also acquired a mast. It came from a French Formula 40 race catamaran — a relatively bare lightweight aluminium wing section, but a good match for Fram. Besides finishing the painting on the boat, I wanted the mast to be installed at the next launch, so this was included in the planning.

Eventually, the work was carried out over three months in the summer of 2023, from July 1 to October 1.