Book 2, Chapter 6

"What are you on about Venus? This is the male mould being made for the production run. What we came to see is behind that spray curtain."

I think if I hadn't already mistaken something else for the boat I would have been shocked but at least what was in front of me next was recognisable as a boat. Very black and very bare but a boat. A boat with a complete keel which ran half the length of the boat and was not, compared to boats I'd seen before, very deep. I noticed too that the keel was slightly bulbous at the bottom and, although I didn't know why it was made that way, it did show that thought had gone into the design.

"It has no rudder" I said noticing that for the first time, then moving under the stern spotted "and it has a great big hole in it!"

Bill laughed and asked me to hit the transom which terminated the stern of the boat as a simple vertical face. Picking up a rubber mallet I gave it a good thwack which produced the thud of something very solid. "That is down to your input and an advantage of carbon fiber is we could make it very strong but still light - the two rudders which will hang from that transom are leaning against the wall over there."

"And the hole?"

"That is a tube that runs vertically up to deck level and the electric drive motor sits inside it. When you are not motoring the motor slides up until the propellor is inside the tube and a flap closes the hole at the bottom. It looks unsophisticated but there is no large electric outboard in production so we have made the first from tried and tested parts. I hope it will make the boat very manœuvrable for marinas."

I walked over and looked at the engine sitting next to rudders. "This is a one-off handmade engine so who is 'we'?"

"It only looks that way because the case is a one-off but all the working parts are off the shelf. It was designed and made in Scotland by a company that are an interest of mine and one day I hope their big new outboards will be manufactured under license."

I was beginning to understand that just about every part of this boat involved some scheme of Bill's and climbing up onto the boat's deck I couldn't resist asking, "The ladder?"

"Already patented by someone called Noah but fortunately for us the patent has run out."

Looking around the deck I could see a lot of work had been completed before the deck had been joined to the hull but hearing work still being done inside I stuck my head down the companionway where I could see two men fitting a tank to a forward bulkhead.

"Well there's a sight for sore eyes but don't let the boss catch you up here Pet." The man facing aft had spotted me and was nudging his friend who turned and smiled.

"Can I help ya Hen? Are you looking for someone?"

"I was just looking at this boat and wondered if it was any good?"

"Aye it's good alright but will cost a pretty penny. Mind you the guy who designed it knew what he was doing, like this day tank we're putting in. Me bro' fitted one to his fishing boat for reliability but you don't see them often on yachts 'cos it all costs extra."

"Don't mind us lads." announced Bill joining me in the cockpit. "I'm just showing the skipper here her new command!"

"Bill you're a sneaky bastard and I can't imagine what tale you span this sweet young lass to get her to go along with your schemes!"

"Don't be taken in by the sweet innocent looks lads she knows her stuff and is no pushover. Now we don't want to interrupt you so let us know if we get in your way."

For a while Bill and I just sat in the cockpit looking around. Unlike other cockpits I'd seen this one had strong looking arches running over the forward and aft ends.

"Much of the overhead space between the arches will be filled with solar panels" explained Bill, There is no mainsheet in the cockpit to hit you because it runs on the forward arch and the aft arch will hold the radar, the wind generator and a hoist to lift the engine up the tube we talked about. Oh yes, there is a towing generator back here too - you tow a spinner on a line which turns a generator and makes electricity."

"Why all these ways of making electricity Bill?" There's a diesel generator inside and boats used to go sailing without all this stuff?" You only have the main engine with an alternator on Molly come to that!"

"First there are two diesel generators inside - a 5hp and a 15hp - but that… . Sorry, let me try again. When we talked about improving life by generating electricity in a place like the Dominican Republic we weren't the first to come up with that idea and their situation is in many ways similar to a long distance cruising yacht's. The generating equipment is improving and getting cheaper all the time as are ways of storing electricity. What haven't improved are the networks to utilise power from many different sources, which is your dad's field, and there are few real figures for how much electricity you get for your money from different sources in different conditions and your trip will help supply those."

"So are you doing this to design a better yacht or to build power grids for islands?" I asked getting confused.

"You think we can't do both? Like that park today much of what we enjoy is an unintended consequence of someone's earlier effort. Of course the accountants try to steer projects so narrowly there aren't any unintended consequences but human beings are talented in the art of creative inefficiency and, given half a chance to play, time after time we come up with new ways of doing things, new ways of seeing things and new things to do."

I could hardly argue the point as the only reason I was here today was because 6 months ago I had looked in the mirror and after 18 years of assuming I was a boy I'd suddenly seen myself in a different light and known I was a girl!

From that point on Bill had my full attention. Through the afternoon, except for a tea break with 'the lads', we went over the boat trying to see potential trouble spots and opportunities. When I mentioned I was practicing splicing Dyneema Bill immediately phone Ian, the rigger back in Cardiff and I quickly had a job which included working on the new boat's rig. Geordie, the Newcastle lad, encouraged by the spirit of the moment offered a new way of running the generators' exhausts which opened more space in the saloon - I hadn't even known that the watertight box in the centre of the saloon held the two generators. No boat is a perfect design but this one wasn't going to fail for lack of creative thinking.

We finally left along with the men at the end of the work day and walking across the windswept car park to the magic bus I asked Bill where he was thinking of for us to park up and sleep for the night.

"Don't be daft lass! Tell your mother we slept in the bus by all means to wind her up but it's February, you've just had an operation and I'm 78. What do say to a dinner and hotel in Stoke on Trent with theatre tickets I just happen to have booked?

As I drove back toward Cardiff with Bill next morning I had time to think what our excursion had really been about. The boat yes, and even Bill's 'pearls of wisdom' which he'd been dropping since our very first sail together on Molly…. There was more to it than that though.

"It's lonely isn't it Bill? Not being able to share." I glanced sideways and caught a pained expression cross Bill's face.

"Aye lass. Sometimes I need to be with people I don't have to hide things from even if some of them are barely acquaintances."

The lads in the boat shed, the hotel staff and even the woman who checked our tickets at the theatre had all treated Bill with an easy familiarity and he was relaxed around them. as I believe he'd become with me.

"Last week I forgot that I'd never told a particular friend that I grew up living as a boy so when I introduced her to my oldest friends, who of course were likely to casually mention it, I felt incredibly stupid! Once it was done of course I had to smooth things out but at the same time I've never told any of them about the billion pound trust. That I told to the psychiatrist who I now need to help me cope with all these changes."

"I've never told Litara about the money. After nearly 50 years of loving her and now being married to her I still haven't been able to bring myself to share that." There were tears rolling down Bill's face by this time and all I wanted to do was hug him: I couldn't of course while I was driving the bus so I just touched his shoulder for a moment.

"My family know you've made me your heir and that you have a nice house and things but they haven't the faintest idea of the scale of the legacy. I can't imagine telling them. How would they react? Would they want money or to tell me what to do with it? If one day I'm seen giving a charity a £100 someone might think I'm being generous until they find out I could equally well have made it a £1,000 or even a £1,000,000!"

I started laughing and couldn't stop, nor could I stop driving because by this time we were on the Severn Bridge. "The problem is that you're not rich enough!" I gasped. "In 1966 they built this huge bridge we're on, never imagining they would need more until only 30 years later they had to build that new bridge over there." I was still giggling to myself as I pointed out the new M4 bridge to the south of us. "It's a case of 'If you build it they will come.'"