Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Building Blues - UPDATED

The first blood of this project has been drawn.  I managed to cut myself on the tape measure.  Talented, right?


 I'm at a weird stage of this boat building thing.  I have too many little things to focus on, and I'm really having a hard time keeping it down to bite sized bits.    If I can manage to give myself a daily schedule, I might end up being more productive. 

 For example, I've been itching to order more plywood.  But that seems like a waste of time at the moment, because I still have about 4 more bulkhead patterns to measure and cut out.  I could also cut out the rudder.  OR, I could cut out the foil cross sections to use to build my router jig.  I am also fretting about "shape to suit" instructions that are in the plans.  This is the current object of my fretting: 

This is the stem.  Apparently I can 'shape to suit' a curve on the inside of it.  It should be a simple thing- it's just a simple curve, right?  My brain just won't let go of it, and I worry that somehow MY shape-to-suit will be inappropriate and unshapely, and somehow cause my vessel to fail at an inopportune time.  I CAN'T HANDLE THE PRESSURE!

I've gorged on a large quantity of chocolate to try and relieve some of this crazy boat fixation.  It hasn't worked yet.

So I stumbled upon a blog of another lady boat builder (now I can't find the link to her blog.  When I hunt it down I'll be sure to add it here - UPDATED -  I found it!  "Building Luna" ), who is actually in the middle of her build, and not just drawing stems on paper.  Her plan is to sail the world and to live on her sailboat (STOP STEALING MY DREAMS (no, seriously, that's a great idea, I wish I had the cojones to do just that)) and I couldn't help but be charmed by a quote she posted:
The desire to build a boat is one of those that cannot be resisted. It begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon. It ends by covering the whole sky, so that you can think of nothing else. You must build to regain your freedom.
-Arthur Ransome, 1923
 Yup.  That sums it up.

UPDATE!

Sometimes, no matter how conflicted your brain is, you just have to move forward.   So that's what I did.  I drew a 'shape to suit,'  it looks right, actually it looks lovely, and I'm sticking to it.

Also, I have a new toy.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Julie,
    Arthur Ransome sure nailed it with that quote!
    Are you going to the Pocket Yacht Palooza Saturday? It would be a great opportunity to talk to some real live Scamp builders (and us other builders).
    -Joel

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  2. I definitely plan on going. It'll be great to see so many great boats. Also, it'll be the first time I'll see a Scamp in person. Very much looking forward to the event.

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  3. Julie, enjoying your chronicles. I'm also in the midst of building a boat. Ack! http://littleshantyboat.blogspot.com

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  4. Bob, that is a great boat design, it looks like it'd be really fun to build. I look forward to reading about your progress. I won't be able to comment on your blog though as I broke up with Facebook a few months ago. Rest assured that I'll be lurking!

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