Thoughts on 5 years of building a boat....

Someone asked me recently if I'd gotten what I wanted out of building my boat.....

I could have just bought a second hand dinghy for a couple of grand, less than I've spent in tools, materials, etc.
But I wanted to build a boat.

It's taken 5 years, and now it's nearly finished.
I could have played golf, and now I'd have a nothing but pitiful handicap and a load of expensive sticks to show for it. And as someone pointed out on one of the forums, it would still have taken me 5 years not to build it.

It has taken up a lot of my free time. (and time that really was not so free)
Yes, but I could have spent the time watching TV instead. But I grew up watching "Why Don't You?"
so I did.

Soon I'll get to put up the mast and see the sails up.

Then a little while later, I'll get to float it.

I'm looking forward to that.

There's lots of things I would change, now that I have the experience that I needed when I started. But I wouldn't go back and not build it.

Thanks Caroline, for putting up with me, and for giving me the time to do this. I could not have done it without your support. You may not have turned a single screw, or cut a single piece of wood, but this boat would not be here without your support. I'd have given up and used it for firewood a long time ago without you.

Dave

ToDo List

The pieces for the mast are cut, but still have to

• Glue the mast
• Plane the mast after gluing and & Round the corners
• Sand the mast
• Install sail tracks.
• Varnish the mast
• Varnish the boom
• 1 panel of the hull still needs glassing
• Paint the hull
• install the hardware
• rudder fittings need bedding
• standing rigging
• running rigging
• various cleats
• Install Centreboard Case Cover
• Buoyancy bags
• Add some form of rubbing strip where the deck joins the hull

So I should be in the water this year !!

Coamings & Paint

 At least there's paint on the deck now, and coamings cut and clamped in place.

 They look pretty good, for an amatuer.

Any my new temporary boat tent, so that I can paint the boat.

Just one thing.....

When you are tired, it's hard to get motivated to go out and work on the boat. The TV and the Couch beckon, and you can "flop and veg".

But if there's just one little thing that you can do in the shed, that gets you out there. So last night I cut a set of bolts to size, drilled out the countersunk holes in the cleats, made up backing pads for the cleats, drilled out a whole pile of washers. (I bought a box of 100 stainless washers, but I got the smallest size. I can drill them out if I need larger. Buying a pack of 5 of them costs nearly as much as a box of 100)

In the end, out of a tired evening when I might have simply flicked through the stuff that passes for entertainment, (The Boss, 57 channels and nothing on), I moved another little step closer to launch day.