Building A Wooden Boat
Building a Wooden Boat – Why You May Want to Do This
Welcome, here is a website dedicated to bringing you great details about building a wooden boat. We will go through the positives and negatives and let you decide if building a wooden boat is really for you.
There are an increasing number of people who are looking to build their own boat and they are doing it for a multitude of reasons. Keep reading and you will be able to see which of the groups you fit into or in fact if like many people you fit into many of the categories.
So let us take the time to look at the reasons people are building a wooden boat and get behind the easy answers to get to the main driver of this occupation. We will see that as with much in the world today there is often an underlying reason hidden below the more obvious simple answer. Sometimes the people themselves do not fully understand their motivation behind wanting to construct their own boat.
Now let us quickly go through the easy explanations as to why you and many others will be thinking about taking the time to build a boat for yourself, so listed below are the
Top five reasons given for building a wooden boat,
• We get to decide the quality of the finish and the fittings when building a wooden boat,
• We are looking for a long term project that excites you and has a tangible outcome,
• We can get a better boat for the same money or to save money,
• We have the skills but they are not used enough in our day job,
• We have always dreamt of sailing in a wooden boat that we know we built ourselves.
Do you fall into any of the categories in the list above or in fact do you fall into more than one?
Many times people, me included, really believe we fall into one of the categories when in fact in truth we should really put ourselves in another category. I thought I was thinking about building a wooden boat because I could get a better boat for the same money. Although this was true if I actually work in the cost of my work I would have bee better able to do something with the time and earned more money and bought an even better boat.
Or at least it would seem by many people that I could have bought a better boat than the one I took the time to build if my time had been included in the overall cost. However this to me misses the point. The sheer pleasure I felt in building my own wooden boat and then sailing something I had a real investment in, not just money but a true feeling of commitment.
So many times the “I am building a wooden boat because it will save money” covers the fact that many of us have “always dreamt of sailing in a wooden boat that we know we built ourselves”.
Do not worry if your real reason for building a wooden boat is not motivated by what other people would consider true value calculations. We all have our own value judgements to make and if you really want to have full control over and a real commitment to building your own boat then the fact that you might get the same outcome for a lower output is irrelevant.
It is not always easy to quantify the value of building a wooden boat as opposed to just buying one. It is sometimes a difficult argument to make that to you the majority of the value to building a wooden boat is in the journey not necessarily the destination.
However it may be that even when deciding you want a boat building project it is sensible to not try to do all the work yourself. There may be parts that just make more sense to use outside help; it may be in getting hold of the right boat plans, finding the outboard motor you need or to get the sails made just to the right size. Or it may be that for certain things there are specialist tools you do not have at present. After all you can do just what you want when building a wooden boat to your own desires.
We need to be clear that when we start building a wooden boat there are parts we will want to do and for other we are happy to buy in the services of others. After all it is not likely we will be a master of all the skills required. To add enjoyment and confidence that we achieve the best result in building a wooden boat it is necessary to do the things we are confident with and outsource or buy in the others.
We really should be careful however not to other analyse our reasons for building a wooden boat. After all we are not trying to justify this to ourselves we are often just trying to second guess other people. Other people who do not have the same value system as us and hence even if we clearly articulated all the facts to them they would not come up with the same answer to the question is building a wooden boat the thing to do?
We may highly value knowing that a certain type of wood that we wanted to incorporate into the build is just not available on bought boats unless we went to the expense of a completely bespoke design and build project. Others may just consider that standard finish would be fine whereas for us it may destroy the whole ethos of the craft. There again there are people who argue that fibreglass is simpler and can be used to build a boat so much faster than building a wooden boat. However if you are still reading this I can assume that we both fell that wood is the right material to use to get the quality finish we are looking for.
In summary you need to make your own mind up about the value to you of building a wooden boat and the pleasure you will get from not only sailing it but in the construction phase as well. Building a wooden boat may be the thing that gives you a real buzz and gives you returns far and above the investment you will make, I know it did for me.
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