I'm silly. I know.

But I'm really happy right now that I found this!!!! A free book on Small Boat Building!! Yes, it's like 100 years old, but so what!?! It will give me the basics and make me happy.

Ok. That's all. ...Mostly. I found this pic also and it made me REALLY happy.

Lofting

Lofting. WTF. This nebulous word has haunted me from the start of my boat building dreams. What happens is you get a table like this:

And a few images like this:

Then they say you can use the magical spell of "lofting" to somehow make full sized boat plans. Yeah. But thank God for the internet! Cuz of sites like this, I can now keep dreaming and move forward... I think... I'll still need to figure out what the offsets chart is for.

In the mean time, I've found out that Marine Plywood is $80 a sheet...grumblegrumble. Happier news is that I've printed out the plans! My boy wants to make a 1"-1'0" scale model of the boat before we start on the big guy. This seems smart to me. 

The Dream Begins

Alright. So I think we've finally decided to do it! I think... I hope... We're going to build a boat! And not just any boat. A wood sail boat! This boat:

Hopefully. For your information, that is the Exploration Ketch, designed by Tad Roberts. The plans are free and can be downloaded directly from his site. *Disclaimer* - I do not own any rights to this boat or plans.