Denis Goyette Posted February 11, 2003 Report Share Posted February 11, 2003 I know It can go between 6 months to infinity but from your building experience, how long did it take you and how many hours a week did you work on it . I am trying to figure out if I will be sailing this summer or next summer...... Thank for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Paxton Posted February 11, 2003 Report Share Posted February 11, 2003 If you can start now, and stay with it, I don't see why you can't be sailing your Weekender this summer. It's like saving up money. Make sure you do something each week, and before you know it, you're there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Mellema Posted February 11, 2003 Report Share Posted February 11, 2003 I started mine on September 28 2002 and put it away on October 23, 2002. I have it done to putting the fiberglass on. It was to cold to do that so I have to wait untill ti warms up this spring. I figgure I have about 150 hours in on it to this point. I am looking forward to starting back up on her as soon as it warms up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeStevenson Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 While the average is around a year or so for most people, there have been builders who've had them in the water in six weeks or so. It took us about that long when we were doing the videotapes in 1994. The boat in Hawaii was faster, seeing as how we had no distractions and didn't have to tape things. It was about three and a half weeks. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 One year, eight months and a day. And I don't have cold weather to blame either. I live in a moderate area where there are absolutely no days where its too cold to epoxy, or work in the shop. But I don't hold the record for taking the longest. Charlie's Procrastinated Sailboat is the longest on record that I know of. Got the plans from Stevenson Projects for $10 in "1981 or 1982" after seeing the article in Popular Science and launched on April 24, 2001. He's a pretty funny guy, with a web page that is a classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Sylvester Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 Almost exactly a year and a half, november 1999 was first cut to May 2001 which was registration and launch. I tend to move along nicely until I hit some detail which will bog me down while I beat it to death. Funny part is that I'm still putzing around with the dumb thing almost two years later. This weekend is to replace the porthole rings (rotted out) and start work on the new cabin sliding hatch (leaks like a sieve). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike - Oregon Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 I started mine in Sept 2001. I'm moving at a "relaxed" pace. Probably about two evenings a week and one and a half Saturdays a month. Maybe I'll get it in the water this summer. Maybe not. I still need to sand, paint, varnish and fiberglass. (not necessarily in that order) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T. Nelson Surbrook Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 8 months from first cut to launch and two years later I am still working on it. The truth is you will never be done working on the boat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tdrown Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 I am a high school student who just got weekender plans, I hope to launch the boat by Memorial Day. I am going to get the keel and spar wood this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johannah Posted February 12, 2003 Report Share Posted February 12, 2003 Hoo boy, tdrown, that will be exciting! Hope you plan to stay in touch so we can follow your progress. Where are you in case there are other builders nearby?? Are you going to get academic credit for this project? Our daughter hopes to build a kayak in a year or two and to receive art project credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Norman Posted February 13, 2003 Report Share Posted February 13, 2003 Laid the keel 3/10/2001 - hit the water 7/4/2001. Worked about 15 hours a week, probably thought for as much of that time as much as I worked. There aren't any really difficult things to do - just some confusing ones. Make sure you understand what you are going to do before you start each step and things will go well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Donlin Posted February 13, 2003 Report Share Posted February 13, 2003 We started on our two boats right after Christmas of 1999 and launched on Mother's day of 2000. We usually worked about every night after supper until about 10:00 or so, then usually one day of the weekend. Once we started to glass I spent some days out in the garage so that each coat was put down within 24 hours of the last coat. I think we spent WAY more time thinking than building. Looking back on the whole project, nothing was hard, we just didn't have much experience in some aspects of boatbuilding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeStevenson Posted February 14, 2003 Report Share Posted February 14, 2003 Well done tdrown! We like to hear from younger builders (particularly as we started out this way ourselves...). Keep us posted on your project if you can. As to building in Hawaii without distractions, we'd been over there a lot prior to that point resaerching the possibility of moving there and wanted to build this boat fast. We did it at a friends piece of property which was completely removed from the world. No power, no water, no telephone. We used a generator to run the drills and saw when needed. We were building in an abandoned carport/shed in a gully with not too much to look at (except the spiders which would drop out of the passion fruit vines which covered the tin roof. The roof leaked like a seive, so rain squalls meant covering the boat with a tarp if we wanted to keep something dry. No vise, but lots of workbench created by the left over flooring of this old house (no walls left). All in all, a very primitive site, but fun. It took a week of clearing just to get to the place and cut away the vines and spiny amaranth all over the place. We made good time because Peter and I were there by ourselves, would get up early and drive to this guy's place, work until dusk, then go back to the condo we were renting and watch I SPY reruns on Nickolodeon (I think), then crash at about 7:30 and start all over the next day. Fun. The only real distraction at this place was the coastline: a pristine cove with no access for anyone else, a great reef/lava tide pool area, a washed up lifeboat from some freighter--very "Robinson Crusoe"-like. It's possible to bang a Weekender out pretty fast if you're not too concerned with details. Keep in mind we knew the boat pretty well, have had LOTS of practice doing this, and were not trying to make the boat pretty at all. Fast and dirty. Also: that boat had no steering system, which saved a bunch of time (maybe not a lazarette either, but I can't remember). Over the years we've learned just how bad a paint job we can do and still have it photograph well. Photo-grade is about all we do for our boats. On the new one Peter just did, he didn't even fill the weave of the deck fiberglass this time (we suddenly realised that we've been filling the weave with bondo, painting, then applying non-skid. silly; why bother...It looks much more finished the normal way, but the new little boat is a test anyway, and he wanted a workboat look). When Peter and I work together on a project, we don't waste much time on stuff. Usually a running chatter about stuff, but not too much standing around. A working style developed back when we did the swimming pool plans and needed to get them done in a hurry. It worked well on the Valkyrie project, as we were designing that boat as we went, so we had to move pretty quickly to keep our interest up. (also why there were never any drawings for that boat; we did all the decision-making on the fly) Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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