Life is an adventure says man building boat

Mike and Carrie Duffey purchased a Voyageur 542 fibreglass hull in June and since it was delivered have ripped out and replaced the rear deck and begun work on a new pilot house. They plan to sail the 15,000 kilometres to Australia when finished. This will be a fantastic achievement when completed, it will truly be an adventure when completed, Here for the full story.

 I myself only went a 12 footer made from plywood and fibreglass, it was a big thrill the first time I took it out. You can see my build over at www.sailboatplansinc.com

Not sure if you should buy a boat ???

I've seen a few of these organisations that offer a service where you can buy shares in a boat rather than forking out the full purchase price. You can buy shares which allows you to sail at a fraction of the price, obviously you need to share but how often would you get out if you owned a boat. Talk about a bang for your buck: Read more here. I actually built my own boat at a fraction of the price of buying one, my fist boat was a 12ft dory. There are numerous wooden boat designs from Sailboat Plans and much more, see my boat here. Build on!

The building of the THOMAS E. LANNON

Here is a fantastic read about a 29yr old shipbuilder from Essex who completed a 61 foot schooner. After building my wooden boat I could not believe the size of the timbers used in these big schooners. Check out the story here.   

Hawkesbury River - Fishing weekend.

It was time to take the boat down to the Hawkesbury River Sydney for another fishing expedition. This is our 4^th trip to this river system and hopefully we’ll catch some keepers, the last three times didn’t produce much at all.

Day 1

Arrived 7:00am Sunday and headed off to “Flint & steel” which is a well know fishing spot at the mouth of the Hawkesbury. There we were anchored up with about 20 other boats around us when my rod took off, I jumped up to find I had something decent on the end of it. It was approximately 10min later when I got it to the boat and discovered it was a shovel nose shark, back in it went. We stayed at flint & steel for about 1.5hrs, we caught a lot of small bream and snapper, we managed to snag one keeper a 38cm flathead.

The decision was made pull anchor and see if we could find some yellow tail which is fantastic bait. No luck, after about 30min it was obvious there were no bait fish around. Our next stop was on the northern side of “Lion Island” which we had not fished before. To our surprise I landed a 20cm yellow tail after 3min, time to get the jigs out. Both of us started using those jigs with about eight artificial flies attached, in about 10min we had half a bucket full which was fantastic.

The yellow tail suddenly disappeared so it was time to get back to catching the big ones, so we thought. We had a few bites and one run but there was nothing landed, the seas started to come up so it was time to head back in to the river system. We ended up on the point into “Mooney Mooney” which provided some excitement. Numerous fish were caught but once again to small to keep except for two bream which went 25cm. This spot was marked on the GPS as there was plenty of fish so next time they could be the bigger variety.

It was a pretty good day on the Hawkesbury, the sun was out and the water was calm. We headed in for some dinner and a few quite ales before bed, tomorrow would be another day. For some detail and photo's of a Plywood Boat I build head over to Sailboat Plans. 

Boat sales drop again in August

Fiberglass boat sales continued to drop in August, but sales of aluminum boats showed a slight increase for the month, with the aluminum pontoon segment leading the way. Sales of all fiberglass boats, including personal watercraft, fell 21.2 percent read more.

After the economy went south people can't afford to purchase the boat of their dreams, save the 90% and build your own. Here's how I built my boat, Sailboat Plans.

Boat Building for Kids

New Hampshire Boat Museum in Wolfeboro offers boat building classes for kids. What a fantastic project for kids to complete, the thrill they will experience on the maiden voyage will be with them for ever. Read More. My kids could not believe that you could actually build a boat at home, and thats exactly what we did. Check my boat build over at Sailboat Plans.

Cardboard boat racers take to water

Amateur boat-builders took to the water, paddled, and sank in a variety of vessels — made out of cardboard. Teams of people from Plymouth were challenged to design, build and set sail in a cardboard boat on Saturday as part of a project to raise the profile of engineering.

The event was the city's first cardboard boat regatta run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Devon and Cornwall's Young Members' Panel, at the Mayflower Sailing Club, Madeira Road, Plymouth. Read More: 

While cardboard is indeed a lightweight, cheap and easy to work with material there is a building method nearly as easy. Plywood is a fantastic material that can be easily made into a water craft, check Sailboat Plans out for how it's done.

Rocking the Boat

Rocking the Boat is a fantastic not for profit in the Bronx Section of New York, that inspires young people through traditional wooden boat building.  For years we have been trying to find the right words to express the incredible work this group does, so we jumped at the opportunity to include this short film on MrMovieTimes.com

New Delhi

Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell is flying to New Delhi seeking emergency talks with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh as India scrambles against the clock to save the event. Read more here.

If the commonwealth games had a boat building event I'm sure to win with my Wooden Boat build.

Cardboard boat racers take to water

AMATEUR boat-builders took to the water, paddled, and sank in a variety of vessels — made out of cardboard: For the full story.

 

Over at Sailboat Plans I show you how I made my own plywood boat, cheap and fun to do.

Cardboard boat racers take to water

AMATEUR boat-builders took to the water, paddled, and sank in a variety of vessels — made out of cardboard: For the full story.

 

Over at Sailboat Plans I show you how I made my own plywood boat, cheap and fun to do.

33ton ship built in front yard.

A 71-year-old self-proclaimed farm boy dreamed about spending his golden years cruising to glamorous tourist destinations such as the Caribbean, Europe or Asia. Tom West from Poland, Ind built a 57-foot, 33-ton sailboat on his tennis court in his front yard. Read more here. 

My boat is only 12ft and made of plywood, Tom's is a whooping 57ft, simply remarkable. Well done Tom.
 

Boat Building with the Kids

Found this great article about getting the kids into the workshop. It talks about how to setup a workshop for child safety and talks about the bond between parents and the kids from doing something together. I plan on doing a canoe with my kids for our next camping trip using some plans from Sailboat Plans. Read the full story here.

Boat builder creates working art

Boat builder creates working art

“What have I gotten myself into?”

Those were the first words out of Lawrence Cheek’s mouth when he opened the large mailing tube that had just arrived from Devlin Designing Boat Builders in Olympia and unrolled the plans for the 19-foot gaff-rigged cruising sailboat he’d just purchased. Read more:

Here's some more detail on what can be achieved with some plans and a few pieces of plywood.

Boat Building School

Wooden Boat building School:

The program teaches students a style of boatbuilding unique to the region, a hybrid of techniques used by diverse populations of boat builders – from England, Japan, Scandinavia, Slavic countries – that settled in the region. Read more:

It’s great to see a school like this teaching a whole range of people the enjoyment gained from building your own wooden boat. Unfortunately there’s not too many schools offering this service, so what do you do.  Like me you have to build one yourself, this is how I did it at Sailboat Plans.

Build On!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cracking Boat Piant

A mate had a major problem with his hull paint job; the paint has cracked in places. This is not the first time he’s done some painting but it certainly caused some major problems. It appears a cold snap may have affected his cure time on his primer which he didn’t allow for. It’s extremely important to allow the primer to cure completely before a top coat. When you look to start painting make sure you follow the instructions and don’t take any short cuts. Please take into account weather conditions as this will effect cures times, always give yourself some extra just in case. From the team at Sailboat Plans.