Patience cannot be taught

[Coastal Cruiser]

but is just another part of the building process of building your own boat. It learned with knowledge in boat bulding for many. After a few replies to Rockdoctor, and reading through his website, part of it also addressing teachers, I thought I would pass along some thoughts, or spinoffs from the earlier comments:

Applause to you Coastal. I have researched designs, pros, cons, history and philosophy of builders. There is yet to be a unified theory of building so we all pick our path, and make peace with ourselves I guess, knowing we may never know. A new thread would be nice to bounce ideas around.
What design is your sharpie?

pertaining to what you may never know, but in turn may learn after the fact, no difference than in after you leave school and find out too late in a lot of things.  ;) The difference is some affects the overall product, and in some cases may cost you in the long run.

I commend you for venturing out on your own with such an ambitous project. Each step of the way requires patience. Do not place a time frame on any portion of your project. This also applies to obtaining the very best materials, not accepting second best.

If it takes you a week longer for a selected and ordered in part, and you think there is nothing to be done,[well there has never been a boat that doesn't have an alternative project,] then take that time to clean up your shop.


This also makes a much nicer project long term. Never look at a project as only lasting a limited period of time. It may not live with you but a short period , but it may live with someone else, too.  [I know I did not choose my wife to only be with me a selected amount of time]. ;)  Many boats have the simular characteristics and maintainance as Wimmins.

In most cases, you do become attached to these things, as this process evolves, and any short changes, or cutting of corners, will come back to bite you.
Ever built a house with a crooked fondation, and then place the roof is placed on it, only to see that the 1/2" inch at the fondation, has telegraphed to one foot out of square?


The labor is actually more in some of the cheaper materials, too, or substitute materials. This is something that you will also lean after the fact.

We build these boats as an extention of us. Yes thats corny wording, but its part of our personal makeup of acheivement, in most cases.


But do not rush any step of the process, including second best anything, whether it be skipping a coat of primer, rushing some glue joints with fast set creating improper  wetouts,  or clumped up glass, or not checking the fairing along the way to get the boat in the water. 

One brick at a time, proper mortor, all cured properly. The labor is the same.

Please accept this as idle time writing, and written after reading so many folks on boat project, using the expression of "If I only knew then what I do know now" and also as many of us have said many times with normal life issues.

The most rewarding thing to do is be on the water in your own boat, constructed by your own hands.

Now on to another comment that you ask about, and that is my own hull.  I also went on my own way. I built my existing hull with almost all reclaimed lumber from the grounds of a local lumberyard. It was red cedar siding and rough sawn cypress. The siding had the laps mostly broken and could not be sold. The 1x4 cypress had been aging and a bit twisted and could not be sold either.


That boat evolved from a drawing on a piece of 1x4 pine.



They were taken from a friends hull that dates back to 1949.







I took the measurements from three points and made a jig, truing it up with battens.



I used scrap rough sawn cypress for the bottom, which was also in the twisted piles of thelumberyard, and could not be sold. The bottom configuation is a skipjack bottom, requiring a stepped entry to achieve a shallow draft, but vee entry. The bottom carries six inches of uniform deadrise through it.


I planked the sides, with the better of the red cedar siding, cutting off the bad laps, and then shiplaped the planks.


I planked the bottom all the way to the stern and rolled it over.





At that time I placed the ribs and false keelsons in it and finished sides.
I also used recyled wheel  weights in it, to create the downhaul, and did this with 1/2 inch plywood, glassing one side of it with two layers of biaxall cloth, and the turned it over and routered it out , enlaying the weights into epoxy, with a bit of cabosil and the glassed it.





I used the leftover cypress and resawed the strips to bookmatch them from side to side, and also did the same to some wider pieces so the complete decking is all bookmatched, including the mahogany that I did purchase to trim it.





I have since changed the interior layout to side seating and is very functional with that layout. The older style seat thwarts were used when no covering boards were used and hiking boards came into play. Thes boats evolved from commerical work boats, and "pickup trucks in the older days, used to come to town to buy supplies from the outer banks, and barrier islands.

On my new hull, I used more of the siding, ripping the pieces into smaller strips, down the vee grooved seams and making planking for it.





I have skinned it longitual now, as a laminated process, a process that many of the old PT boats built by Huckins.

So Im am not main stream either.

[s/v Faith]

Frank,

  Those pictures are absolutely beautiful.  Wonderful design and work.

  Thank you for your words.  They are a good reminder.  Being a sailing addict, I find myself tempted to rush.  A good day for working on the boat is also a good day for sailing....

  Thankfully, I bought a boat that I just can not bear to do sopmething half-way on.   My little projects may take forever to finish, but I believe you are right.... it is worth it.

[starcrest]

try drifting in the middle of nowheresville for 4 days at a time with no wind what-so-ever.I did that twice---not by choice----but by chance----I learned how to be very patient.and that lasts for ever.to this day even the slightest wind is appreciated.jus' set it an'forget it.dont ask for more.what you see is what you get.when I saw that wind coming from the north.....I was very patient at that time indeed,and very thankful-----to hear the sails begin to sing,after 8 days total of utter silence.thats rite folks---I know of a place where it is very quiet indeed.

[Pixie Dust]

Coastal- read you 2-12 entry and really enjoyed the insight as well as the picts of your beautiful boat.  She is gorgeous!  Your patience shows in the product.  Your advice puts things into perspective, not just with regards to boat projects, but with life in general.  Thanks for taking the *time* to share all this with us! 

[Coastal Cruiser]

Thanks for the kind words. I cannot control the world and the rest of the crazies, but I can control what happens around my space, as I am the only one that knows what makes me content.  This happens to my world.