Make Life Better with a Sailboat-in-a-Closet

Step 6 Improve the design

The boat is yours, and you are free to drill new holes, saw things off -- anything! Gods feel this way when they create worlds and then alter the course of history. Improvements are always possible and easily doable, which is the joy of designing your own wooden boat. My engineering philosophy is to design while I build, so that the boat will never really be done, though it will reach plateaus of done-ness. Note to undergraduates: if you want to become a commercial engineer, use a different philosophy.

I lightened the boat by sawing the top two inches off, cutting out solid wood not necessary for strength, and etc. Then I added decks and other stuff (leeboard, hatches, bigger sail rig, and a heavier ama that added weight back. Oh well).

Here you see the required weight-reduction phase done over the winter starting year 2 of boat use (three years since project started). You perhaps have purchased a tiny but useful house after the third year of the life-crisis, and it has a garage and basement, and you can build even an alternative energy power core and not worry about landlords any more. Life doesn't suck all the time, you start to think. And if Death awaits, It has not come today.

Comments

[Wade Tarzia]

Note my second 12x12 inch x 4 foot box in the background. This is not the tool box/bencn of previous mention. This box is of same dimensions in case I needed to work a long piece of wood. But usually I used the simlple interior to store large tools seldom used such as grinder. But 90% of time I bolted down on top my larger power tools used often enough (but not really necessary): a small drill press and a small bandsaw -- if you buy them, buy larger sizes for real boat-work. A larger bandsaw will be especially worth the extra expense.--WT