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Upon arrival, it felt like a parking lot for boats (which, literally, it is) except one feels a lot smaller than in a normal parking lot. The boats are kept on metal stilts, so everything is above eye-level. We saw the undersides of many boats. An interesting thing in itself, because that is the part that is usually underwater and unseen. There was a large variety shapes and sizes to the boats, some round on the bottom, others flatter (personally, I loved the round ones because they seemed cute). There were a number of boat owners present, performing maintenance on their ships. There was a lot of stuff in the yard like ropes, tarps, tools and machinery. I had a hard time composing photographs because it felt like the things were in the way. But I guess this wasn't the case, because those are things that are inherent to this place, and I still came up with photos I liked.
Naval architect, Jim Antrim gave us a short talk about custom boat building, and showed us the workshop in which a boat is in the process of being built. He builds boats specific to his customers' preferences and price range. Many of the boats that he's commissioned to do are racing boats, in which case they need to be lightweight, and hydro- and aerodynamically sleek. The boat in the shop is a racing yacht, the Antrim 49. It is similar to an already existing, record-breaking boat, the XL. This boat is kept in the yard, and we were allowed to see its underside as well. It is indeed very long, sleek, and relatively flat bottomed (very unlike my favorite round boats elsewhere in the yard...) It was very impressive, particularly from our viewpoint below.
Inside the shop, workers were busy making the interior of the new boat. It is currently in two pieces. The bottom half was made over a mold so that it was upside down, and then flipped so that its mold could be removed. I particularly liked the way the underside of the mold looked, hanging from the roof of the workshop. Its shape and the lines the boards made reminded me of the lines along the neck of a humpback whale. The top of the boat was also in progress (probably the only boat top I saw all day...). It was very sleek, and if we're to continue comparing boats to animals, it reminded me of the beak of a great blue heron. 
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