I began construction of a wooden boat in 2005. I worked on it off and on, sometimes making huge progress and other times letting it sit untouched for months at a time.
Well, it’s finally finished, except I still have to find a mast and sail. I took it to the lake today and there are no leaks! Yay! It floats perfectly straight, not lopsided in the slightest. Looking at it, nobody would ever guess that it was constructed by a total amateur!
I couldn’t resist bragging when it attracted scores of onlookers at the boat ramp.
That is really cool, and it looks like it took a *lot *of work, especially getting the boards to meet so nicely along the midline (is that the word for it? the middle of the bottom, before you put the keel on). It almost looked as if you were pulling a zipper up the middle.
Although this is the first boat I have ever built, I have to believe that the method I used to build the hull (strip planking) has to be the most difficult. Especially as you reach the middle. The strips become harder and harder to bend and there is less and less room to work in.
But the beauty of the finished boat makes it more than worthwhile!
I am most definitely impressed. that’s a gorgeous boat! Our one and only boat building attempt was a nutshell pram, which is made from marine plywood, so it went together a lot faster and more easily than yours. Plus we just slapped paint on it, because while we love the look of bright wood, we used to own a vintage wooden boat and we know what’s involved to keep the wood looking good… Sorry, got off on a memory tangent.
You do good work - I can see why it took you a long time, altho I admit I was expecting to see the work done in the basement like on NCIS. The fit and the finish are top-notch - you have every right to brag a lot!! Are you going with a wooden mast and boom? Tanbark sails?
That is truly a thing of beauty and must be a source of enormous pride.
However, of course it floats. It’s made of wood - surely if you had simply chucked the wood in the lake it would have floated anyway. Think of all the extra time you could have had to watch mindless crap on TV.
A very nice piece of work. Always been a dream of mine to tackle a boat-building project (specifically a McKenzie Drift Boat), but haven’t had the right combination of resources - time, tools, money etc,).
Yours, I’d say, calls for a full champaign christening…and don’t forget the pics.
SS
The fit and the finish are top-notch - you have every right to brag a lot!! Are you going with a wooden mast and boom? Tanbark sails?
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