Here in the Sports Boat and RIB office, the days tick away as if they were on fire. No sooner has another glorious issue of this magazine gone to press than the month has passed in flap of a gnat’s wings, the next deadline has come up and my designer is breathing down my neck and threatening to take my pet goldfish as a hostage if I don’t give him the articles we’re meant to be printing, this second. All in all, there is not much spare time to be had.

Which is why it is so annoying when you come across such an entertaining and time eating website such as Williams’ 'Build my Tender' site. Now it should be said this is not the first of its kind, the MasterCraft site for instance has an equally time sponging modelling application, and many more do exist, but most recently it is the Williams’ ‘Build my Tender’ website than has stolen so much of my time...

Picking from a selection of five sizes, serious folk with an intent to buy and daydreamers alike (i.e. me), can whittle away far more time than I’m willing to admit to by tinkering and playing until they have their perfectly personalised jetboat. Then at a click of a button you can send away for a quote on what it would cost to build into reality.

Now obviously there is a massive potential and a huge amount of sense to such systems i.e. to customise a tender that perfectly suits the mothership, making sure your new Williams’ stands out in the marina – or because you’ve always wanted a flamboyantly pink boat and never quite had the gall to go ask a respected manufacturer directly to make it for you… the possibilities go on.

Now admittedly, ‘shocking pink’ does not come up in the pre-designed colour swatches for you to choose from, but there is a freetype box for special requirements… and I’m sure as long as you have the cash, and the balls, they’ll certainly consider building it.

Now I’ve had more than one go at designing my own tender, in fact thanks to the ability to save your own creations, I have a library of garishly designed boats that should never see the light of day, all of which proving that I am really not, in any way, a good designer.

Of course those who can actually match colours, and might be looking for a high quality performing jetboat, then this certainly could be the way to go about it. As for the rest of us, it is great fun and allows a man to dream – shortly before being nailed to the wall by extraordinarily exasperated colleagues.

Serious design and procrastination at its best: www.buildmytender.com