Hey folks, I'm new to the forum and fairly new to boatbuildling. Just a little bit about me to start with. I'm fairly young at 22 years old but extremely motivated and quite expierienced for my age. I'm an emerging fine furniture builder and woodworker. I will be graduating school this December with an Associates of Arts degree from the Vermont Woodworking School at Burlington College. For those that are curious about my work, check out my website, www.TJGwoodworking.com. I've just started this past fall running my own part-time business as a woodworker. It is going quite successfully so far. I have built one boat in my life so far, a 16' Cedar strip canoe. I started the boat when I was 18 with very little expierience and finished it this past summer when I turned 22. After completing the boat, I realized I'd learned so much during the entire process. While completeing the boat, I kept recognizing new things that I wish I had done differently earlier in the build. In any case, It floats, looks pretty and does the job well. It weighs in at 55lbs. My grandfather built quite a few Adirondack Guideboats in his time. That is what inspired me to get into boatbuilding in the first place. I always tell myself, furniture-making will be my job, boatbuilding will be my passion.
Anyways, enough about me... This spring I'll hopefully be purchasing some property with a decent sized barn to work out of. I've already got a full wood shop worth of equipment but it is sitting in storage as we speak. My plan is to do a minor hull repair to a 26' Oceangoer Chris Craft once I get moved in. In turn for the repair will be a small lump sum of money to get started in my endeavors. Obviously I have never done repairs to hulls but am willing and eager to learn. The owner realizes this and it is one of the reasons he is helping me out. Once I've completed the hull repair, I plan to begin construction of a nice skiff. I've been doing quite a bit of research the past few weeks and have been eyeballing the Marissa quite a bit. Her clean lines and ecofriendly design appeal to me. I will be using the boat for pleasure mostly. Occasionally some fishing and mostly lakes, no big waters. Possibly Lake Champlain from time to time. I know this design is pretty good in choppy waters which is a plus for me, I don't like being on a boat that gets pounded.
I've got a few questions regarding this skiff though. The first question, does anyone know where I could find pictures of the interior of the boat? I can't seem to find any, and I've searched the forum as well. I'd like to see the layout of the boat and how she looks. Second question. I've estimated roughly 8k to build this boat. That includes the motor and possibly trailer, does that sound about right? Third, how much would one save from building the boat from scratch Vs. building with the kit as offered on the B & B site? Are there any benifits to doing it from scratch? Last question, this one may or may not have an answer, It'd be nice to know a ballpark figure on the amount of time to build. I'd likely be working on it weekends and weeknights, occasionally weekdays. I figure about a year, maybe year and a half. Is that reasonable or should I allow more time?
Well that's all I've got for now but I'm sure I'll think of more! I look forward to seeing what some of you have to say.
Thanks!
-Tyler
