Hey gang, I want to build a boat!

[Gilfy]

Hi Folks, most know me as Gilfy, and i hail from Northern KY, (though i grew up in Jersey).

I was thinking about building a boat to sail around a bit, maybe the ohio river a little, probably some lake Cumberland.

I found the Stevenson web site and realized that the weekender is absolutely beautiful, but i am not in much of a position to own one of those right now.

Looking around on the site i came upon the 3 in 1 sailing dinghy, and seems ideal for my needs (can put it on top of my golf, can sail it) so i was wondering if any of you had any experience with this type of boat?

I need to save up some money before i can build it as well but i think once it gets done it will be awesome.

[Charlie Jones]

welcome to the addiction- betcha can't build just one

Before you settle on anything, take a look at the other website on these forums- B and B Yacht designs. Graham has some extremely nice and good sailing dinghies on his site.

http://bandbyachtdesigns.com/

[JeffM]

Check out other designs and designers, too. I'd suggest a look at those featured on Duckworks (http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans.htm). To compliment my "big" B&B Core Sound 20, I am building a Michalak design now: quite a bit of little boat for not much time and money.

[John Turpin]

There's a partially completed Weekender for sale here that could be a good deal: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/boa/294519695.html These 'partially completed' project boats can be a good deal.

I'd second Charlie's recommendation to look at B&B. Their plans are very detailed and complete and their designs are proven.

[ken connors]

So you wanna build a boat. You'll be getting advice to "check this out" and "check that out", but the first thing you need is check-up from the neck up. :wink: Good luck, you"ll get a lot of help here.

[Charlie Jones]

Now Ken- don't be telling him things like that- How we gonna troll him into boat building if he gets that idea?

[Gilfy]

Blast, i already ordered the 3 in 1 plans, but that partially done weekender sounds awesome! But alas, i havent the money for any project just yet

[Andrew_Butchart]

The 3-in-1 is a nice little boat. Howard Anthony has a nice web page about the one he built at http://howard4010.tripod.com/default.htm and he was quite happy with it. Howard's a great guy - I'm sure he'd answer an email if you had questions.

One thing to keep in mind with a car-topped boat is the weight. 120lbs doesn't sound like a lot, especially since theoretically you're only lifting half of it at a time, but after a long day it can be quite a lot to get up into the air. When I had my MiniCup and Jeep, I actually used an overly complicated (but that's just me) winching system to load the boat up.

Don't worry about already having the plans and being "committed" to the 3-in-1 as a project, if you're anything like the rest of us, you'll soon have to clear off a bookshelf for the plans that you'll accumulate :-D

Personally I'm a big fan of the Stevenson's plans, they're designed so to be easy to follow if you're good at following instructions (I'm not) and allow you to go your own way too. I've worked with other plans that are nothing more than a set of dimensions and you have to figure out how and in what order to do things yourself.

[Gilfy]

awesome thanks for that link! It'll give me stuff to look at as i amass the necessary funds for wood

[PAR]

Having plans isn't a bad thing, I have literally thousands of them. Okay, most are in a data base (many scanned from original sets), which I use as reference material, but I bought quite a few as well.

About this boat building thing, do you have any mental illness in your family's medical history? Clearly, you're the type that likes to do things for himself and a gluten for punishment. Your money would be better used to pay for some counseling, possibly long term institutional care. Boat building is a disease, an incurable illness that if allowed to manifest in a person, will surly cause significant depletion of supplies at the local lumber and epoxy sellers. If this bug hasn't gotten too deep into your skin, several far eastern doctors have been offering surgery, in an effort to excise this problem from society once and for all. If you wait too long, you're screwed, because it's terminal in nature, though there is no cure, there is a remedy of sorts.

This remedy is quite painful, ask an experienced builder about the moaning chair or cutting on the wrong side of the line, in a $170 piece of wood or better yet, what happens to a beautiful mahogany cap rail when the pilot bearing on the router's round over bit falls off in mid run. You've heard of "cussing like a sailor" right? They learned it through the builders they picked the boat up from. Pain, cussing and most often heavy drinking are your friends, get used to it.

Of course the remedy is building a boat and the 3 in 1 is a nice first project. It will build confidence and skills. Like I said and was softly eluded to by Charlie's earlier comment (bet you can't build just one . . .), it's only a pain killer (sort of, if things go right that day), not a cure. I've built many boats, so have several here on this board (welcome aboard by the way). I got sick early in life and have been dosing myself, repeatedly over the years.

The 3 in 1 is a very easy build and you'll enjoy the project, if you decide this is the one for you. I personally think there are better car toppers available, but this is an opinion of a long sick person and should be taken with considerable salt. Since I've stopped taking my medication I've been a bit cranky, so please forgive me if I've offended your yet to be distorted sensibilities. You too will someday become an old fart, with a well worn couple of dents in his moaning chair. Do yourself a favor and pick up a comfy recliner and small end table to place next to it, for the beer and a box of tissues so you can wipe the tears (or dust) from your eyes.

Welcome Gilfy, you've found a good place (thanks Frank) to learn, cry and feel wanted.

[Charlie Jones]

And here I thoght *I* was the only one who had had a bearing come off!!!!

And I well remember cutting a ( 4 piecesof marine ply) $200 layup bulkhead 10 inches too short :shock:

I eventually used up all of that 1 1/2 inch thick screw up for other things but the moaning chair got heavy use THAT day, for sure.

[Andrew_Butchart]

I "in the club" too - here's my port side panel that I cut about 3" too short and didn't notice until it was in place. I was using construction adhesive on a hot day and the glue had already pretty much set up - I was committed!

Fortunately wood is a forgiving media. A backer piece, lots of glue and once the paint is on no one will know.

[PAR]

That's why they call epoxy "wood butcher's friend" and I've used my share over the years, hiding mistakes. Of course, I convince myself that I've made the piece much stronger afterward, in a feeble attempt to justify my error(s). Lets not discuss the 30' birdsmouth I glued to my bench last year (don't rush an epoxy run, or attempt a run when you're tired, both of which I did, while forgetting the Visqueen). I still have a huge divot (6' long) where I sacrificed the bench to save the client's stick.