Hello world...

We're building a boat in a barn in north Germany and are looking for help. We means about 14 helper during the last year from the USA, Canada, France, Argentina, Israel, Iran, Korea and England, some friends from the neighbourhood who come around to help for a couple of hours and me.

In Schoeppenstedt between Braunschweig and Berlin in the Niedersachsen-Region lies the former farm of my grandparents. Today the farmhouse is rent to a family and most of the other buildings are unused. During the last years I started to use them for various projects like building a raft/houseboat, a handcar, a two person diving bell and a small sailing Trimaran.

The biggest project is to build a wooden 11,4 m Catamaran. Since 2008 this plan has constantly evolved and is now about 50% through the process of realisation. While I was terminating my studies as an engineer I had the possibility to work on the construction as an university-task. Thereby I received all the relevant engineer standards and learned a lot about the recommended practices to build a safe boat.

The project has evolved during the last year. Now there are the two Hulls with the right side up in the barn and would float if the deluge would come. Everything is prepared to start gluing all the plywood-parts in the Hull. During the last weeks of October it was possible to do the woodworks, but to work with Epoxy (the glue) it needs to be at least 15°C and there is no heating in the workshop. That is why we've made a winter-break during the last months, which is luckily over now.

Now with more then ~10°C it starts to be OK again to live in the barn. The last months it was quite cold in Germany, and except the wood-stove in the kitchen there's no heating. So I moved to my girlfriends flat and did some workaway in Spain. But since the middle of march the barn is nice again with the firts days warmer than 15°C.

So if you are traveling through Germany and like to work with wood for some hours a day, go for it...

Greets form the barn
Carsten

Lower Saxony

The idea to build a sea-proof Catamaran developed as advancement of the raft which was built in 2005. Suitable for lakes and rivers it could already accommodate 6 people in beds and had a motor, a steering wheel and a regular inscription in the German boat register. After some wonderful summers around Berlin (first Photo) and on the lakes of Meklenburg, where we used it also for organized holiday trips for pupils, the Catamaran should now increase the using possibilities. With eight regular beds it is developed for longer tours with bigger groups even on the sea.


Via workaway I am looking for people who like to work with wood and to see results in the end of the day.

Last year from June till september we set up frames according to the 3D model and to planked them up with pine planks. Afterwards the surface was covered with a thin layer of fiberglass and epoxy. When the first hull was ready it we pulled it to the ceiling and the second one will was started on the same frames and finished in September. Now, after removing the frames and turning the hulls the last step will be setting up the bulkheads and closing the Decks.

Due to the fact that the entire bridge deck and the mast will be realized with removable scaffolding elements the boat will probably be transported to Italy when the hulls are ready. Therefore it will be relatively fast on the water tand start it's first tour on the Mediterranean.
Everyone who will participate in the building process is invited to join the following trips as well as to lend the boat for his own travels during the next years...

english, french, german, spanish (a little), arab (less than spanish))

I’m offering free accommodation in 1920th style in a cleaned farm building. There are two separate rooms (one with two beds and one with three beds) with electricity, a living room, a bathroom with shower and a kitchen with fridge and gas stove. Something to eat and drink will always be bought according to your wishes. Beside the work for the boat there is the possibility to work for own projects on the farm or to join me on trips to Berlin where I just found a job and to Kiel at the Baltic Sea where my girlfriend is living. Also Braunschweig with 1/4 million inhabitants is reachable by train in 25 minutes. So there will probably be no boredom or countryside crisis. For nature loving visitors there are lots of bicycles and even a side car motorbike to drive the 5km to the Elm forest, which is Niedersachsen’s biggest beech grove. Also the Harz National Park is reachable by train in a distance of 45 km.

Oh ok, and who I am: My name is Carsten , 28, currently working on the six doors for the cabins / toilets. I studied bioengineering in Germany, France, Czech Republic and Marocco and finished my Diploma about a project in Casablanca for wastewater purification and agricultural reuse in may 2011. I just found a job at the TU-Berlin-Campus-El Gouna in Egypt and Berlin. During the semester, starting in October 2012 I will give lessons in water-engineering. Till then I will be preparing the lessons in Berlin and hurrying to get the boat ready. When everything works out, I will try to sail it over the Mediterranian to Egypt and the Red Sea as soon as possible.

So I hope to find some helpers / sailors for the first trip and to hear from you…