Inspirations
When Clark was a young teen, he bought a book about sailing and has desired to build a boat since that day. Nina was inspired by family who did a bit of sailing and traveling aboard sailboats. When Clark met Nina, her parents were sailing a Catalina 25. They moved up to a Catalina 30, then found their dream boat in a 40-foot (plus bowsprit) Cheoy Lee center cockpit ketch. We enjoyed many happy times together aboard boats. Sadly, the death of Nina’s dad meant the end of her parent’s dream to retire and travel aboard a boat. Of significant influence were Nina’s grandparents– Julian and Olive. Upon retirement back in the early 1960s, they had a boat designed and built for them. That boat became a popular design called “Serendipity”, after the first 37-foot motorsailer’s christened name. When the Serendipity was launched, Julian and Olive quickly learned to sail, then left San Francisco Bay within two months! They sailed first to Mexico for a winter, then bashed up the West Coast, into the Delta, and all the way to Sacramento. Then the two of them departed for British Columbia in 1964. The legacy that Julian and Olive left with Nina was their spirit of adventure and a sense of determination!
The support of one’s family is of great importance to a boatbuilder with a passion for his project. As a team, Clark and Nina spent three years searching for a design and construction method for their dream boat. They looked at many types of boats, sent for study plans, met with designers and people building their own boats. Clark was almost set to build a Ted Brewer Jason 35. It is a traditional monohull with classic lines, a very pretty little boat. The future first-mate felt the cockpit was not suitable– no protection from the sea. Just to make sure they hadn’t overlooked any possibilities, Nina had just finished reading There and Back Again by Joanne Sandstrom, so she suggested they investigate multihulls. Although the two had no experience with catamarans or trimarans (very little sailing experience at all, for that matter), Nina liked the idea of not heeling and especially of having an unsinkable craft.
Clark sent for more study plans. When the drawings from John Marples arrived, we set aside all the others. The Constant Camber® method of construction appealed to us immediately. The boats created with this building system are light, sleek and curvy. The wood/epoxy process looked like a perfect fit. Clark is general contractor and journeyman carpenter, so wood is his forte. After meeting with John at his home in Port Orchard, WA, Nina and Clark settled on the CC40 trimaran design. It felt right.
Rikki-tikki-tavi started growing in 1990 and he slowly took form. These pages chronicle the journey from his inception as a stack of mahogany plywood and clear fir. Compressed into a few minutes of viewing on the web, it is important to remember the expanse of time over which Rikki-tikki became a real boat. That this couple is now sailing is due to the perseverance of the builder of this unique vessel, Clark Wagaman.
