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Good day all, I have been working on this Spindrift 10 quietly in between my Merchant Marine job, three kids and my "other" job of owning my own carpentry business when I am off the ship. I received the plans months before I started. And as with most of you, life has a tendency of getting in the way whenever you say " I am going to make some headway today, this week, this month". I cut out all the parts and got the boat stitched up in May, took the summer off and got back to it in Oct. considering since May I have only had two and a half months off I dont think Im too bad off. Cost....did I mention I have three kids! anyway my wife almost had a heart attack when four sheets of plywood cost 400 bucks so I have been slowly spending money, the below pictures are the result of TWO quarts of resin and the hardener. Please dont freak out, I have only tacked the panels and full on glued the stringers,gunwales ect. I was very careful to watch out for twist and fairness along the way and think its pretty good so far, but Im a boat driver not a boat builder yet so I may be wrong. You'll notice the plans in the boat looking very well used, I have read them so many times I barely need to look at them anymore ( I still do to make sure of stuff) and I have a "shop" set and a study set. B an B has no need to worry about me making copies...the shop set will be worn pretty thin by the end. I wish I could just work on it all day everyday, I love building things out of wood and boats sure beat the sh#t out of anything else in my opinion.

Great topic that should probably have its own thread. I had my kids take Sunfish lessons each individually when they were 8. It was a week long camp. what I feel like they really bought in was when they realized they could sail themselves. Like me they would talk of the places they would sail to when our boat was built. Now they are older with too many things to find time to sail much. but the participation in building led them to their own creative identities. I met Amos's kids at the Messabout and saw how enthused his kids were for sailing. The key is to get them hooked young. To those that haven't read "Swallows and Amazons" to their kids, its never too late.

Passed through Port Aransas a few weeks ago, and stopped by even though the festival had to be canceled as there weren't enough hotels open yet to accommodate visitors. Visited Farley boat works and dropped off a large box of "spare parts" for them to use in their building programs. They were replacing motors on their power tools as they had a few feet of water IN the boat shop during Harvey. Some buildings were totaled, and one of those very large multi story "storage racks" for power boats was completely crumpled with all of the boats still inside..... Kept rolling onward and in spite of a few technical/political issues (I had to cross the border at Tecate a total of FOUR times as they didn't SEE Petunia behind my explorer and made me go across the border again, this time sort of backwards....) Finally got through and then had an ugly 2 day drive down the Baja peninsula as the main/only highway was heavily pock marked with large,deep pot holes from their hurricane , Lidia, in September. Numerous blow outs on the side of the road all the way down. And while many of the speed bumps on the highway are marked by signs, more than a few were not, and at times I had all six wheels (explorer/trailer) airborne at the same time. Got into Loreto Thursday evening exactly 4,000 miles from NJ. Dropped Petunia off at a storage yard, unpacked the car, and had a few friends shanghai me to a deserted beach/bay 40 kilometers out of town. Kayaked remote arroyos at high tide, snorkeled around weird cactus crowned islands, and slept on the beach for a blazing full moon. Will spend the next few days doing minor repairs to Petunia (cockpit fittings vibrated on the bumpy road so much that screws/nuts/bolts worked their way loose...), and then see about doing some sailing. More to follow....

Not saying you are doing it wrong but get the kids hooked up. The minute the kiddies are onboard so to speak you go from selfish guy wasting family money to hardworking dad bonding with his kids. Most women like that. Then you take them out sailing in a boat they helped to build, their faces light up and it's all in a bag. Perfect time to tell the good wife that the 10 footer is just a tender for the real boat of your life. Whatever that might be but (usually) a lot bigger than 10 ft. PeterP

Alex, I have been married 17 years now and I cant hide anything from that woman! She is like a forensic accountant and does all the books as I have spent my adult life on ships around the world, its hard to take care of stuff in the middle of the ocean. I have a job on a drillship now with really cool stuff like phones and internet but the damage has been done- cant hide nothing! That's why I started a carpentry business, separate stream of money! As for her telling me how much she spends.....gave up caring long ago. When I tell her about anything I want to do she automatically adds double time and money already - like I said 17 years, she knows me better than I do.

Well guys, I took Dragonfly2 out to race today, but they wouldn't let me. It seems that they can't find a rating for the Coresound 20. I will have to apply to the Australian Yachting peak body for a rating if I want to race. Ho hum! So I tagged along instead which meant starting behind the pack and no competing for line position. It was blowing 10-15 knots with gusts to 23. Our lake is renown for wind from every direction and strong gusts on a windy day. Other days are drifting races! I sailed single handed, full ballast tank and reefed, and on the down wind I was overhauling Careels and the like and interestingly both of the NIS Sharpies. One big one and one little one (no idea, maybe 18 to 20 foot). The small one had to deal with a death roll a couple of times when running, but I had no such problems. The Coresound could point as high, but the NIS made better speed at a high angle of tack and that enabled him to do one less tack than me and slip around a small headland in the lake and get away from me. Now that I have a bit of weight up forard, (anchor tackle and the battery), the boat seems to point better. An enjoyable day that confirmed that I still like cruising over short course racing. We have a race in Oz called the Marlay Point overnight race, I think the Coresound could do well in that.