Hi Arwel,
How are you? Is everyone getting ready for Xmas? I saw that someone had put a Santa’s face and star on the wall in the mess (food hall), this will most likely be our grand Xmas showing.
They have been keeping me very busy onboard this ship. I seem to be working 16 hour days, with no let up insight. I thought today was Wednesday, but its Friday, It looks like I need more sleep. But I’m writing lots of new software for the future!!! On a lighter note, the weather is better and there is more sea life on this our second voyage. We are seeing lots more whales, dolphins and birds. But I have been too busy to see most of it. The other day we past a dead Blue Whale, the government wildlife watcher said he thought it dyed of old age, but we past it up for tissue samples as we were on a survey line and could not stop.
My last business plan to you was a very general overview. I brought up the show ground issue as a way to show that the area was going to be tidy and clean. I don’t see that this location would be good for casual walk in customers (too remote). And as a manufacturing business I do not want any uninvited or unescorted people wandering around the buildings and site. I do not intend to use it as a retail outlet. Most all my customers would be coming from magazine ads, boat shows, Internet, brochures and word of mouth and the like. I however see that some people aren’t going to hand over a down payment without seeing what the finished product will look like and to see what kind of operation and people are involved in it. Most of the boats they will see will be the unfinished boats. I do hope we always have at least one complete boat for at sea demonstrations. So some people, not all, will want to come see for themselves. The biggest market for our kind of boats, are in the south and east coasts of England and Scotland. Most, I would expect, would be first timers to Pembrokeshire, and make a mini holiday out of a visit. I don’t for see more then 5-9 people/groups coming to see per month. If a customer plans a visit to see our operation, I plan to send out an information packet about the local area, with a full set of tourist information brochures and things to do in Pembrokeshire, and help them with any reservations they may need. This will help both me and also the local community.
For you to know how I plan to make a success of this location is to understand how each building is going to be used. I have designated all five internal buildings A-E. (A), being the west building, the area we will talk about the most in this document. But first I will explain how the other buildings will be use.
Building (E), will be the building next to the pit storage area on the south side with large sunlight panes facing south. This has the largest floor space but the lowest ceilings. It is the farthest away from the main hot work areas (welding and wood cutting machinery) explained later. This makes it perfect for the main fibreglass lamination area. Moulds take up large spaces. More heat is needed when doing the fibreglass laminations, so the low ceilings and large sunlight panes will keep it warmer in the winter months. It also has better ventilation then the other buildings which is a plus.
Building (D), is the second largest in floor space and has a very high ceiling, this makes it perfect for the assembly of the cabin tops to the hulls. Tall lifting and a very tall roll-up door for moving boats in and out. This has a very good internal access to the wood working building (B) and the inventory building (C). As this is where the workers will be going back and forth most of the time, to fit all the little pieces together. When the boats are at the semi-complete stage, with no engine, they will be rolled out into the pit as described in the previous document.
Building (C), this is the building at the northeast corner with a small access door and small rollup door. This is perfect for the deliver and storage of inventory. This is the most secure of the buildings and is the right size. The rollup door will allow delivery trucks to back in and hoist off large cargo with an internal lift. It has easy access to the access road outside.
Building (B), is the building between (C) and (A) the west building. It has a small rollup door and a damaged farm door, of which I plan to replace with a wall. No need to have two doors in this space. This is perfect for the wood working area. It has easy internal access to the main assembly building (D), plenty of space for table saws, planers, band saws and the many other tools needed.
Building (A), the west building. The area immediately around this building is the main topic of discussion for this document. This is the perfect building for the metal workshop, welding, engine repair, engine testing and installations. As this building has a solid concrete wall, isolating it from all other workspaces. This will keep it away from the more flammable woodworking and fibreglass work areas. It also has the strongest walls to support lifting equipment for metal work and engine installation and extraction. The area around this building is also the perfect area to repair local boats. In reality it’s the only place we could work on local boats. As the whole set of workshops is on a hill, access to the outdoor pit area is only accessed by two steep hilly side roads. Just moving boats from the main assembly building (D) to the pit area will be a pain and dangerous if the boats aren’t secured from sliding out of there trailer dolly’s. I plan to make special dolly’s that fit exactly the shapes of our boats built on site, to make sure they don’t endanger anyone. But this won’t be the case for local boats that will come in all shapes and sizes. Many local boat owners don’t have a trailer for there boats and will be borrowing from friends and most likely a bad fit for there boat, but good enough to get here slowly. The area around building (A) is level with the public access roads, and will be safer for local boats. Local boat owners would want to work on there boats also and it would not be good business practice to mix them with the main working areas. Building (A) is away from the main working areas. Most of the services that a local boat owner would need is also in building (A) metal workshop, welding, engine repair and installations. The plan going forward will also allow for a more secure lockup and protection of the third-party boats. The insurance company’s will mandate secure lockup and protection of the third-party boats. The area to the right side or south of building (A) will also be set aside for both local owned boats and finished boats ready for delivery, as finished boats would be the most likely to be targeted by thieve and vandals. No more heavy work is needed on these finished boats so they will not interfere with local boat owners working on there own boats. It is also the best place for the customer to take final delivery as this area is level with the public roads for a safe exit out.
Building (A), is the most important for the new boats built onsite, as the final stages of installing the engine, railings, radar and light masts and any other metal rigging. The space to the left or north of building (A) is most important as most testing of engines will be done outside with a water test tank for outboard motors and stern drive/leg drive boats. The only way to safely put an engine under a running load is with a water testing tank. Also making sure there are no leaks in the installations. This area is closest to the smaller access door on the north side of the building (A), which is important because of power, engine test cables and other wires will pass through this door while outdoor testing is being done. Lots of employee traffic will be needed here, and this space is perfect for this. It’s not practical to break down the testing system every night and also move the boat back down to the south pit area and bring it back in the next morning. Also, a boats can almost double its weight when the engine is installed, making it harder to handle and more likely to slide or reposition in its dolly/cradle. The more times we have to move a boat the bigger chance of injury or damage. Much time would also be wasted. Most of our customers will be from many hundreds of miles away and sending out an engineer to fix any oversights would be a very costly affair.
As this would be the final major activity on the boats before readying them for delivery, the boats would just need to be moved to the other side of building (A) as previous described.
There are other needs of this area that are in the nature of operations. The biggest being rubbish dumpsters. In the good old days we had only one dumpster, now it’s at least three. One for general rubbish, hazardous waste and recyclable waste. Most of the truck driver, now days, are a bit finicky on where they will go or are allowed to go. The pit area access is hilly and trying to turn around with boats in the area might be a bit tricky, and trying to exit going around building (C) has a very sharp and narrow 2-point turn, and most likely full of parked employee cars. Finding a space for three or more dumpsters that are out of the movement paths and away from any combustible objects like buildings, boats, hedges, trees and shrubs would be difficult (more detail below). The only logical place for dumpsters is inside the proposed new fence/wall area on both sides of the gate. And the best place for the big truck to turn around is on the outside of the proposed new fence/wall area. This will make a standard 3-point u-turn easy for any truck driver. The other need is for fire safety which will be explained later.
I know that the west side of the site is visually exposed and will need some alteration to obscure the workings of the area around the west building (A). I have also included some photos of the main type of boats we will be building onsite. This is to show that the new boats we build are small and of low profile and will be easy to obscure.
What is propose, is to two alterations to help achieve both of our goals.
Alteration one:
A 6+ foot iron backed solid rustic wood faced fence or local stone faced wall, both choices with have a solid rustic wood faced iron gate in the middle, used for access into building (A) and surrounding work areas. This fence/wall would run from the existing high hedge bank just to the south of building (A) next to the existing power utility pole and go to the north side of the existing front access gate. Both styles will be strong enough to handle any accidental bumping or banging of equipment moving in the area. I’m a bit old fashion, so I prefer the local stone faced wall, it will cost more to erect but it will look much better. Both choices will blend in with the surrounding colours and textures. Both will have low reflective light, so no glare will come from them on bright sunny days. To make things simple, I will call both choices a “wall”. One end of the wall will merge into the existing hedge bank, to the south of building (A), climbing up the side as it goes, so there will be no hard edges, entail it is mostly level with the top of the hedge. The other end will merge into the existing access road gate and the existing hedge row by the access road. I will also repair the existing access road gate and hedge row, as they are both in need of some TLC. Trees and shrubs are not needed to obscure the work area around building (A), because the wall will do a good job of that, I just like trees so I would like to place some small trees, shrubs or even wall crawling plants along the public facing side of the wall to break up and soften up the area. I would also like to plant some larger trees and shrubs inside the property along the far west hedge row along the road going south to Porth Clais. I’ve put some markings on the map of some possible locations of where trees would look good.
I have included a photo of one of my boats (made by the previous mould owner and is of the older style cabin) showing it next to a 6+ foot high fence. Most all of the boats would be obscured behind the new solid wall. The farther back an object is from the wall the less it will be seen. Also the surrounding area to the west of building (A) is lower then the buildings and walled areas. So a wall 6+ feet high wall and is 8-9 meters away from the front of the building, viewed from a lower vantage point, will obscure over 75% of the face of the building and the boats behind the wall. Even the vantage points by the front access gate, which is level with this area, would be block by this wall, as seen from photo #1689. In the far left of the photo there is an edge of the square “For sale” sign, it was about 6 foot high. I have projected two lines showing about where the top and bottom of the wall might be. I have another photo showing a projection of what a 6 foot wall would cover. The photo was taken about 23 meters away from the proposed wall, just inside the farthest west corner of the property, of which slopes down the hill a bit. The top line is from the top of the hedge bank to the south to the bush that is right next to the “For Sale” sign by the front access gate. This shows the whole work and storage area around building (A) totally obscured. All views from the west are much lower the where I was standing when I took the photo, even the road behind me.
This wall will allow the inner workings of this area to be hidden from general public view. With the bonus of obscuring some of the existing buildings. Making the site more secure for local boat owners to work on there boats with less worry every evening when they go home at night. Better security for finished boats awaiting delivery. The much needed outdoor engine testing area that must be next to the engine and metal workshop. And let’s not forget those rubbish dumpsters. Hiding and securing away rubbish dumpsters so that fire starting vandals don’t find them. But not just vandal, but the hazardous waste we throw out, plastic, resin, oily rags, cleaning soaked rags all can spontaneously combust on there own. Every precaution will be taken for this not to happen, but still I plan to keep the hazardous dumpster away from the hedges, more in the inside centre of the wall next to the centre gate. This plan will also keep it away from the buildings and boats, so if the dumpster does catch on fire, they will be to far away to do any major damage, but still be hidden from the public.
Alteration two:
A need for an open air dust free and weather resistant area for detailing the finished boats, were mostly cleaning and polishing before wrapping them up in plastic wrap, ready for delivery. This is best done outside within a covered area. As this is not a heavy or injury prone activity, it would not interfere with any local boat repair activities. Local boat repair will be needing covered areas to do deck and superstructure preparation. Cutting, chopping and sanding areas of a boat, may take days, exposing the boats to the weather while awaiting woodwork, fibre glassing and painting. The exposed part of the boat and the time it takes for fibre glassing to cure and paint to dry, without rain falling and all other hazard of working outside shows the need for outside cover. This area will also allow local boat owners to freely work on there own boats without the worry and security of them wandering around the inside building work areas. The area to the right or south of building (A) is the perfect place for a covered area that won’t impact on the current skyline. A large and high hedge bank to the south obscures any boats in this area. And the proposed wall will obscure boats from the westerly direction. I have included several photos showing, that having a covering roof with no sides over this area will blend in with the roof lines of the current buildings. I am open to suggestions to the styling and of its construction and colour. I would guess it would be in a similar to the current buildings. Two styles come to mind, both open with no walls, one a simple low profile gabled roof in keeping with the back side of building (D) as shown in included photos. This would follow the lines of both building (A) and (D). This will blend in well with both shape and size of existing buildings. This would allow maximum head room for local boats owners to work on the tops of the superstructure of there boats. And second style, a flat awning style, attached to the side of building (A) and the back of building (D). This would be a single flat roof with a small slope for drainage. This would give less head room for work under cover, but give a lower overall profile and be of similar slope to the roofline of building (E) on the right in the photos. I have included a photo with the two most likely roof lines projecting to the edge of the hedge bank. The green, gabled roof, show lots more head room while following the current building lines.
The source CAD drawings came from Ordinance Survey and are not to true scale. I have added some new lines to show, to the best of my knowledge, where the wall, covered space and other features would be. I have labelled internal building’s A-E. Some things like the wall width are sized for clarity. The size of the covered space would be the dimensions of building (A)’s length and go out to the edge of the hedge bank, as shown in photos. I have also added and changed some of the drawing details of the many hedge rows and banks, as they were not showing the true reality of there placement, shape and size. I have placed some possible locations for some trees in the west road hedge area. The photos included with marking on them are to the best of my knowledge to scale and projection by sizing things like the tops of hedge banks and for-sale signs and other aids from the photo themselves. I have not been onsite for months and hoped I remember my heights. When I get back from this trip I will do a properly measure of the sites landscape and CAD all new drawings to true dimensions.
I also want to bring up a point about the hedge bank to the south of building (A) as it may be less then 6 feet high but as all vantage points south, are much lower in viewing it will obscure boats very well. If you have any other suggestions like adding height to any hedges or walls, any landscape additions or changes, please advise me as I want to work with you and Pembrokeshire Parks for a better future. The area around building (A) is very important to me and the success of this project.
Thank You for your time and interest.
Please free to contact me anytime, as I will most likely be up and working anyway.
Ship satellite phone: +870-764-806-186 ask for me.
Ship name is Boris Petrov
When I’m back on shore after the New Year, my mobile phone:
Mobile: 07776-166-866
Best regards,
Scott Lafferty