What compels you to build your own boat? Student looking for help

I'm amazed how many mentioned boards and rudders as being something they don't like to build. I actually enjoyed that part for some reason.

 

What, you don't cast your own screws?!?

 

I've only just started building process so it might be worth coming back to this sometime in the future. I'm sure the answers will be different.

A lifelong dream that started as a kid to build my own boat. The fact that the boat we wanted was well out of our financial means.

Getting it started and finishing it up.

The CnC hull kit was definitely worth the extra money.

Both I guess. Mostly sailing (motoring). Love spending time in the lakes & canals.

 

1) What compelled you to build your own boat?

I always loved messing with boats and when I had to give up work to look after my son I needed something close to home to do for stress relief.

2) What is the hardest part of boat building?

I'm not a big fan of sanding

3) If one could purchase pre-manufactured parts to assist in the building process what would that be? (specific parts, or pieces that are a problem to build)

I find it very hard to get classic windshield brackets, also a cheep place to get rechroming done would help me no end as there is nowhere in Ireland

4) Is the build your passion or is it sailing?

I guess it's the building for me but the smile on my face when I launched my first boat might tell another story, there is a certain satisfaction to going out in a boat that you built yourself "if it floats"

 

An interesting question, which resulted in some rare introspection. Not my strong point; I'm a bit on the arrogant side. Normally I just do whatever I feel like doing, and leave it to others to explain, justify or condemn it. And my builds have been fewer, smaller and simpler than those of a lot of people here, so I'm not pretending to be some sort of spokesman. But here's what I came up with on fairly short notice:

1. A general lifetime habit of deciding for myself what I'm going to do or build, instead of deferring to others.

2. Getting exactly what I want, instead of someone else's approximation of it.

3.. Saving money (although buying plans is usually cheaper than drawing them, if you count your own hours as cash).

3. Simple pride of ownership: "this is my boat, from the conceptual sketches to the color scheme of the final paint job."

4. Not to mention the sheer fun of turning one's ideas and/or labor into reality, and sailing them away.

I design and build my own boats at least partially for the same reason artists create oil paintings: they simply enjoy the creative process, which in a cooperative world results in translating an artistic vision into a tangible reality.

 

Back to the Future

 

Thank you for all the help! It is such a big help.

 

In my case it was a combination of retirement and getting a plastic kayak. I felt I could do better; it took me 4 tries because I also wanted to design it. I wanted it to be entirely my creation so I would not have purchased pre-manufactured parts. Initially the motivation was low cost but it is now the ability to experiment with my ideas.

The hardest part was learning how to design and how to use woodworking tools. I love the building part - I am usually planning the next 2 or 3 boats long before I finish the current one.

I thought the passion was the sailing and paddling but when my health failed I couldn’t stop designing them; then I have to build them to prove the designs.

Boat building is acknowledged to be an incurable disease by the folk on this forum. These questions should come from a psychiatrist IMHO.

 

Some where i read long time ago the most rewarding , pleasing and satisfying job on the planet was boat building .
It was top of the list . !!
It is personal exspression of ones inner most thoughts and feelings , boats have a pesonality of there own and just about every boat ever made is not the same as the one before or the one after ,its almost as though they have a soul . They are a part of the people that create and build them !. Building boats is a passion and never a chore . To turn ones dreams into reality calls on every skill needed in life . You have to work with you head and you brain with your body and your hands , you have to master the use of many differant tools and understand the materials you have to work with and you have to know how things are made and why they are made the way they are .
The sea is very unforgiving and if you make the simplest of mistakes it could and will cost you your life .

There is nothing on this earth as satifying as to seeing your boat float on the water after launching for the first time , every new owner of any boat has a smile of satisfaction !!
Add on !!
Is the build your passion or is it sailing?
Its a lot of both ! the satisfaction of putting your ideas into practice and then sitting ,fishing and seeing your ideas all working well for you !!

 

thought I should do better *L*
nice thread.

What compelled you to build your own boat?
price and the getting the boat I really wanted.

What is the hardest part of boat building?
laying glass and epoxy.

If one could purchase pre-manufactured parts to assist in the building process what would that be? (specific parts, or pieces that are a problem to build)
kind of a trick question cuz "I want to" build it. otherwise
I guess I would choose the rudder.

Is the build your passion or is it sailing?
passion.

DE

 

i was working in the last big wood shipyard in england, we were building the ,as far as i know, last 2 big trad wood trawlers in england for scotland, the yard owner Alan Hinks was very helpful , and told me to treat the loft floor as my own,
but the loftsman was a very bitter 45 year old virgin who wasnt giving no information to no one, you couldnt make it up
i decided to design and build a 10 ft elm and oak on oak and elm , copper fastened dinghy to teach myself lofting in my back yard, the folks in north devon will not accept you if your family havent been there a thousand years,even tho theirs havent
i called the dinghy
the Rankin Miss P, a gorgeous black london disc jockey who kept me sane there,
i later found out she is Rita Marleys sister, and Bob Marleys father had sailed to jamaica from Ilfracombe

the work is hard enough but

the hardest part of building is often the backward, jealous, deranged, stoned, hungover, depressing, violent ,uptight,thieving,people around you

http://youtu.be/ny0G0mkN62M

 

What a fascinating thread. I've greatly enjoyed reading the responses. Let me throw in my 2 cents worth...

What compelled you to build your own boat?

The challenge of doing so and the lack of up-front assurety that you can.​

What is the hardest part of boat building?

1. Selection of materials and hardware... Which manufacturer/brand offers the best product in your price range/budget. Is material a or product b worth that extra few dollars.

• What have I missed. Are the plans sufficiently detailed to prevent cost blow-outs from un-antisipated fabrications that are not covered in the plans.

• Is the BOM accurate... Have I missed something during project planning and in my costings.

• I live in the serene and sensible metric world of base 10 mathematics... Will I make a mistake trying to interpret the quaint but frustrating units of measure of inches, fractions of inches and feet.

If one could purchase pre-manufactured parts to assist in the building process what would that be? (specific parts, or pieces that are a problem to build)

• S/S and other metal components including keel.

• As for hull... I can't ever imagine buying an Ikea kit that floats.

Is the build your passion or is it sailing?

Naturally the build. The sailing, frankly, is just proof that you didn't build yet another wardrobe or chest of draws.
​

Good luck with your studies and thanks for a stimulating thread.

James.

 

That is one sweet ride Sean-nós!

Congrats on such a finely finished boat. May I ask what combinations of wood you used for such a smart finish on the forward deck?

Regards,

James.

 

Thanks, the first boat is just dyed plywood with car pin stripe "poor man's decking" The crackerbox will be mahogany planks with epoxy mixed with graphite power giving black stripes.

 

Too much time spent sniffing toxic building components resulting brain damage leads to poor judgement.