Recently while working on a large sailing yacht, time was getting short, the owner was due and there was still much to be done. As nice as it is to always do the very best possible job sometimes it’s not always possible. Finances or time constraints often heavily influence most jobs.
The job itself was to reinforce the boat in the deck area by the mast. In order to do this most of the interior of the boat had to removed and later modified to take into account the new beams. Most jobs on a boat always seem to take longer than one thought and this job was no exception.
There was so much to do and decisions had to be made as to just how far we should go along the road to perfection. Often I would come across an issue and then explain to the skipper what the problem was and the various options open to him. From this was born one of my favourite expressions.
It was the skipper who coined the expression ‘a dark corner’ and it refers to an area of the boat that is unlikely to receive close attention as it is poorly lit. Often in boats there are areas that are either rarely seen because of their location or because there is not much light. So these are referred to as ‘Dark Corners’.
‘Do you want me to remake this piece or shall I just do my best with what we’ve got?’
‘No, don’t worry, it’s a dark corner.
Here’s a time lapse video I made of the interior going back in. It was taken with a GoPro taking one picture every 60 seconds. It was taken over the period of about three weeks.
My version of Dark Corner is when I’m not in a good place mentally !