The Boatyard

Now for the impetus of this blog--I'm building my own boat! Or rather, my dad and I are building a boat. This has been one of my ideas to increase my time on the water since moving back to the Seattle area last year, and now I've finally got the momentum to undertake it. I've got enough time on my hands to finish this pretty quickly, but given my lack of woodworking skills, the time frame for completion is also significantly dependent on my dad's free time as well. However, we're building the boat based on plans from a library book, and since the book is due back in 3 weeks, there's not much time to lose. The book we're following is Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson by Harold H. "Dynamite" Payson, and we've selected the "Cartopper" as our boat of choice. According to the book, the boat can be built out of four sheets of 1/4" x 4' x 8' marine grade plywood, which should keep the costs of this project to a minimum. However, we've already noticed that some pieces called for in the written-out instructions don't quite make it onto the diagram of the four sheets of plywood, leading to a sense of foreboding about what else might be missing. My dad is checking in with the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle to see if they have any suggestions before we get started, and then I'll source our plywood and get started measuring things out.