First Time Builder

[hoytedow]

Go easy on the guy. He will build this and have some fun with it and learn from the mistakes. The next boat he builds will be many times better. We all build our first and we all made bad mistakes doing it. Lighten up.

[MatthewDS]

Isn't that the boat Goodwilltoall is building?

[retrosub]

You said you want a jon boat with high sides... be careful on the high sides.

I thought I wanted the same thing, and I built one. Like you, I did it without plans, and I'm actually pretty happy with it. It worked, but I ended up cutting the sides down lower, and I'll probably cut them lower still. Too much freeboard is too much windage. I had my boat out on the duck ponds and the wind came up, it was very sketchy getting blown all over the place, I had to sort of crab sideways to go forwards.

I think you should go ahead and build it, it'll help define what you want in your next boat.