If you build it…. it will float. It’s the culmination of a life-long dream – a 36ft sail boat, built by one man, in his back garden

1. Timber from the 1987 storms were used for the bulkheads. “It was available at low prices, and might have been wasted if it wasn’t used,” says Tolhurst.

2. “In order to finance the boat I had to work outside the farm. I took on building jobs that often involved lead, which I collected over 20 years. I only had to buy the final tonne. To buy all of it would have cost around £5,000”

3. “It first began to look like a boat when the frame was upside down. In some ways I liked it more then than I do now. You could see its skeleton and the lines beginning to emerge, which was so seductive. I could imagine the finished boat at that point, and thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be done in three or four years’”

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7. The Naida is slung out of the yard to be transported down to the water for its launch

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10. “The night before the launch I hardly slept. The initial plan was to keep it for close family until I realised how much the boat belonged to the local community. On the day there was a real sense of togetherness – and a lot of moist eyes”

11. “I felt a sense of relief when Naida made it into the water. I had a real sense of achievement. Afterwards I almost felt a kind of post-natal depression kicking-in”

12. “The sailing gear and the rigging was a quarter of the overall cost. It’s specialist work – the sails cost twice as much as the engine”