All's fair in love and war...

...and boat building. Although the fairness here refers not to any kind of equanimity but much more importantly to the boat builder's aesthetic of a nice smooth curve without any bumps or deviations. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

A trip today to Seattle's Fisheries Supply served to empty my wallet of another $150. What did I get for my investment? A gallon of epoxy resin and hardener, and 100 bronze screws. Who ever said building your own boat was cheap?! Ouch...

The sail arrived for the Punt this week. Much sooner than anticipated so many thanks to Intensity Sails for the quick turnaround. Damn, I better get busy and build a boat! The sail looks well constructed and I am really looking forward to trying out the sprit rig. It has a great reputation for providing a lot of drive and power without excessive heeling which is important in a boat with no ballast other than a "solidly built" skipper.

Now, before you think after looking at the pictures below that nothing much has happened, let me say that if I had any hair on my head before, it would be all gone anyway from all the head scratching I have been doing getting to this point. Remember, "first-time boat builder." They say the most important tool in the boat builders shop should be a comfy chair and I could not agree more because, believe me, you are going to be spending an inordinate amount of time sitting in it looking at you work. This is not because you are admiring what you have done, but more because you are wondering how in the hell you are going to figure out how to do what you need to do next. Now, take a look below at that little triangle shaped piece at the stern of the jig. Essentially, I am having to modify the design to accommodate the fact I am using 6mm ply for planking and therefore some fidgeting went on creating that little piece. The Punts in Mersea are much heavier built and I want to keep this one light enough to be car-toppable, hence the head scratching up to this point creating that little triangle. Thanks again to Stan for his advice on this tricky little bit. I eventually just went for it and I will hope for the best. Damn, I AM becoming a boat builder!

Now to get back to "fairness." Below you will see what is called a "batten," essentially a long, straight, flexible piece of wood which, when gently bent over the frames of the boat, throws into sharp relief the amount of adjusting and readjusting which must be done to get that coveted "fairness." The bow and stern posts must be angled to match the pitch of the batten as it comes down to meet them and the frames must be raised or lowered until each one just barely kisses the batten as it passes over them. Once this is accomplished you know the curve is gentle and most importantly...

...fair!

The next step is another big learning opportunity...the "scarf joint." I am excited because once I do that, I will be able to plank the sides and it will start actually looking like a boat! Stay tuned for more to come and wish me luck...

And so it begins...

Well, I have taken the leap and gone from cabinetmaker to boat builder. Give me strength...

 This blog will be a random document of my attempt to build a design by John Milgate called the "West Mersea Duck Punt." The Duck Punt is a sailboat just shy of 16' that you lie down in and sail with your feet kicked over the side in water as shallow as a few inches. No keel, no dagger board, no lee board, just a hard chine and a canoe paddle for steering and lateral resistance. Pure, simple, and fun! The boat uses an Optimist rig which is a basic sprit sail with surprising performance, especially in light air which is the limitation in a boat of this design.
I was first introduced to this boat by Dylan Winter's incredible website "Keep Turning Left" and if you have not been to his site, you should go right now and stop wasting time reading my ramblings. He has a whole section describing his experience building and sailing a Duck Punt with lots of videos and the actual plans to build one if you want to share my adventure. There is also a site devoted to these boats at DuckPunt.org which they describe as "Sailing so chilled the sailors lie down." Watching these guys cruise through the marshes in inches of water sealed it for me and I knew I had to build one. My experience with woodworking is much different and has centered around furniture and cabinet making (RustyKnorr.com) so boat building is completely new and different, and so far really fun! I also have to thank Stan Richards in California for his encouragement and advice after building his own Punt recently.

Things began with needing to find a space to build a boat. After searching for a while, I finally decided to do it out in our courtyard. We live in a converted elementary school/artist community called "Artwood" so using space outside proved to be no problem. This is the space before converting to boat building.

Of course a boat builder needs tools to work and I like really nice tools, so...get out the wallet and empty it on the finest. Festool! A new jig saw and a new plunge/track saw. This boat is getting expensive and I haven't even bought any wood yet!!!

What is a sailboat without a sail? The Punt uses a common rig from an Optimist so I ordered one from Intensity Sails. The spars arrived right away as you can see, the sail is a 4 to 6 week wait. Probably fine since I imagine the Punt will take that long to build anyway.

Well, you can't build a boat without wood! I finally went to the big box store and bought 3 16' 2X4's. These will be used to make the jig the Punt is built upon.

Here is the space after cleaning things up enough to have room to work. The miter saw is not in following my "best tools" philosophy but I got it free so I will make do.

Wow, I finally built something! I made the disgusting discovery that 2X4's are not in the least bit straight, even after picking the best in the pile. Hmph! The things you have to learn to accept as a cabinet maker building a boat.
Woe is me.

Finally! I bought some material that is actually going to be part of the boat! And let me tell you...marine plywood is expen$ive! With the variety of choices available, I decided to use Hydratek. Middle of the price range, durable, and a little heavier. (We'll see if I regret that later.) Below you can see the layout for the frames the boat will be built on. I decided to use the same frames for the building jig as well as for inside the boat.

Let's cut some plywood and give these new tools some action! Roughing out the frames is the first step. That jig saw is just fantastic!

Now we trim them to final size with the track saw. If it is possible to fall in love with a saw, I did.

The next step after moving the jig onto saw horses is to level it with a laser level. Then, attach the frames to the jig, making sure they are dead level, square, and in perfect reference to each other. This is harder than it sounds with 2X4's that are not straight. Success was achieved with that laser which is turning out to be a very useful tool.

I am really having fun teaching myself how to be a boat builder. More to come, stay tuned!