Reply by Dan Lyke

I’m gonna go the other way on this one. This spring I competed for the first time in the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival Boat Building Competition. 2 sheets of 3/8” ply, a couple o’ 2×2s, a stack of 1×2s, a sheet of plastic, a pound of 1” wood screws, a pound of nails, a few tubes of caulk, a few other things.

Add 4 people on your team, 3 hours, battery powered drill drivers and hand tools. And then you race.

My takeaway from all of this is that you can build a nice little paddleable boat that’ll last you for a summer for $30 and an afternoon.

Pictures from our build (follow the link on the bottom to go further).

That basic experience taught me a lot about boats and boat building, the value of plans, but mostly the value of saying “yeah, this afternoon I’m going to build a boat”.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke