Home / The thirty days / The Mani and Arcadia / Caique repair on the Gytheio slipway
Steam box, larch planks, and a slipway facing the gulf
Larch is bent over steam by people who still do it, so reserve a caique boatyard day on the Gytheio slipway
From $150 per person. The yard works 09:00 to 15:00, and this one needs four people booked before it runs, so name a second date when you write. It sits in the Mani and Arcadia, on the Laconian gulf, close enough to the town that lunch is a walk rather than a drive. The figure covers the day at the yard and nothing else.
| Starts from | Gytheio, Greece |
|---|---|
| Hours | 09:00 to 15:00 |
| Runs when | needs four |
| One person pays | from $150 |
| Part of | The Mani and Arcadia |
How the plank gets its curve
You arrive while the fire under the steam box is still coming up, which is the only part of the day nobody can rush. The first hour is preparation: frames checked for the curve they are meant to take, clamps laid out in the order they will be needed, a plank measured twice against the hull it belongs to. When the box has run long enough the plank comes out hot and floppy and everything happens fast, because the timber goes stiff again in minutes. After that the yard slows down again. The afternoon is caulking, fairing and the unglamorous work of making a repair invisible, and you will be handed a tool at some point without being asked whether you want one.
What standing on a slipway asks
Six hours mostly standing, on concrete that slopes, in a yard where nothing sits at a comfortable height. You will crouch, you will reach overhead inside a hull, and you will get resin and dust on whatever you wear, so bring clothes you have already given up on and shoes with a closed toe. Nobody is asked to lift a plank alone. The steam box is genuinely hot and the rule around it is simple: stand where you are put and move when you are told. Anyone with a bad back should say so when they write rather than on the morning, because the yard can change what you are given to do if it knows in advance.
What sits inside the figure
From $150 per person. That holds the yard's time for the full six hours, the explanation in English, the use of tools and gloves, and a plate of whatever the yard eats at midday, which is usually fish and bread and not a set meal. It does not hold your travel to Gytheio, beds anywhere, or anything you decide to buy. This office takes no payment for the day and holds no card details: the yard bills you directly, in its own name, and settles a commission with us afterwards. Figures move when the yard's costs move, so yours is confirmed in writing when the date is held, not before.
Awkward things people ask about this day
- Will a boat actually be under construction that day?
- Often not. A yard this size spends most of its year repairing rather than building, so what you are likely to see is a hull opened up, planks replaced and seams recaulked. New builds happen, but they are rare and we will not tell you one is underway to fill a date. If a build is on the slipway we say so when you write; if it is not, the repair work is the day.
- Can the two of us book it on our own?
- The day needs four people booked before it goes ahead, so two of you can hold a date but cannot make it run alone. In practice we either put you onto a date already part filled, or you take the yard privately at a higher figure, which we quote before you decide anything. If four never gather, we tell you at least a week out and nothing is owed.
- Could you open the yard for us on a Sunday?
- No. The yard does not work Sundays and we are not going to ask it to open for a booking. The same applies to the deep winter weeks when those men are fishing rather than building. We book into the dates the yard is actually working, and we will not invent a day that would otherwise not exist just because it suits a traveller's week.
The other five days near this one
Two days that look close on a map are not always joinable in one week, and the office will say so plainly instead of selling you the pair anyway.
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from $156 per person needs four -
from $138 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $162 per person needs eight -
from $128 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $198 per person private only
Hold this day and add others to it
Booking a day here means the office holds your place with whoever runs that day on the ground, and their invoice reaches you directly once the dates stop moving.