Sailing - I have moved from an O'Day 17' Daysailer to an 18' Precision and now have a Catalina 22. We sail mostly at Saylorville Lake ( 25 minutes from home). We have pulled the Catalina to Red Rock and Rathbun Lakes in Iowa as well as Beaver Lake in Northwestern Arkansas for a few days of sailing adventures. The Catalina is a great boat for us as it is easy to tow to far away places and offers reasonable accomodations for a few days on the lake. Sailing is alive and well in Central Iowa.
Boat building - I am just getting started with this activity, however, it seems to be occupying more and more of my time. I enjoy reading about the different processes and techniques as well as planning and building. I built a flat bottom canoe (cajun pirogue) in August of 1998. I ordered plans from Applegate Boatworks in Oregon. It was my first attempt at plywood boatbuilding, and I learned alot from the experience. Lesson 1: A little frustration with materials and impatience with getting finished does not result in quality workmanship. Lesson 2: It is amazing how well the pirogue looks and paddles in spite of my efforts. Lesson 3: Fiberglass cloth on the bottom is pretty tough stuff (the canoe still floats after paddling down a very low rocky river). Actually there are only a few minor scratches.
Since my real interest in boating is with sailing, my second attempt at boatbuilding needed to be a sailboat, a small sailboat. I searched the internet, sailing magazines, and boat building books for a design that seemed "relatively" easy, inexpensive, and looked good. I choose the Swifty 12 from Shell Boats in Vermont. I ordered the plans in April and started building in June. Below are some of the pictures indicating my progress or lack thereof.
After an earlier project building experience, I had to move my boat building from my woodshop (small door) into the machine shed (big doors). Not as convenient tool wise, but I will be able to get the boat out when it is finished. Here I have just completed fitting the first plank onto the bottom of the boat. Two more panels to go.
I now have all side panels fitted and epoxied in place. I am now working on fitting the bulkhead and other internal structural components. It is amazingly square considering.
September 20. Making some progress with the hull. Have everything together and epoxied. It will be ready for final sanding and painting very soon. Most of the other pieces like the mast, rudder, daggerboard, etc. are completed but need finishing touches. I may get done before winter sets in. One test sail would be nice.
October 10. Finished (almost) and gone sailing. Boat handles very well, but I need to make a few adjustments to the sail. I cut down an old Catalina 22 jib to make the sail. Otherwise the boat sailed very well in a good wind.
I have now taken over half of our machine shed for a workshop and boatbuilding area. Below are my two latest projects. I built the Curlew on frames upside down. The picture below shows it with the sides and bottom complete. I used the offsets from the book by Edwin Monk and used Carlson's Hull program to shorten the boat slightly and generate the bottom and side panels. Everything fit perfectly.
Latest Project - Edwin Monk's Curlew (Plywood on frames with fiberglassed seams). Using a tall sprit rig with jib. Started last summer in July but did not get much done over the winter.
Built this D4 Dinghy over a couple weekends. All 1/4" plywood. Focused on
keeping weight down and did not add sailing rig. Rows very well.
A few pictures of our developing garden. Deb is responsible for most of the design. I am in charge of compost, tilling, and building structures.