Anyway - a copy of New England Design popped up in our mailbox as it does every other month and on page 96 was an article about a retiree who looking for something to do to pass his newfound free time, designed and built his own cedar strip kayak.
This was that boat...
I sort of tuned out at the point where he said it took about 300 hours to complete the boat, because really who has that kind of time...but then I realized, there were plenty of projects I've done in my past that easily took up in the neighborhood of 500 hours (hello fpv equipment :).
But the other thing that struck me about this article was *when he decided to do this...He'd worked dutifully all his life, scrimped and saved and made sure he had enough to coast into his golden years with nary a worry...It was about that point that I realized that...I didn't want to wait until then. Besides who knows how long any of us will be around right?
So I set off to gather all the material I could get my hands on to see if this was a challenge I was up for.
So the first step in this journey?
Have to pick a boat...and after sifting through many forums - I stumbled upon the Laughing Loon, a business based out of Maine, run by a fine gentlemen named Rob Macks. He sells a range of custom made boats, but he also sells the plans and instructional material on how to make them yourself.
After pouring through his entire site and reading every piece of material he so patiently put out there, I decided that based on my requirements and my space constraints, the Georgian Bay was the right boat for me. To be honest, I wanted to build the Ootek, but 17' ft + was just more room than I had to work with at this time, besides, if this works, this will be 1 of 2 boats I plan on making (I don't plan on paddling alone, and my wife would totally be in for it).
So I dropped a check in the mail and a week later, the instruction manual, and the plans arrived in my mailbox...I shook my head thinking - "what the hell did I just get myself into?" then smiled when I realized just how much fun this would be...I'm the type of guy to relish the journey and not so much the destination - I enjoy the process of building things in as much as I do the finished work, so this was right up my alley.
I plan on keeping this blog updated with the project so check back often :)...my goal is to have the first boat completed by April, but as reality sets in - I'm already a month behind :D Still - nothing really ever gets done without a deadline, so that's mine :)
