Projects
10/08/13 05:13
I’ve been thinking about starting a new boat project lately. I guess it is fair to say that I have been thinking about starting a new boat project since I finished the Mister E, a Chester Yawl, over a year ago. That seems to be one of the realities of having building boats as a hobby. You want to keep doing it.
To be clear at the outset, I am not a professional boat builder. I cannot, in my wildest imagination, think that I could build boats well enough or fast enough to earn my living with the craft. I started building a canoe because I wanted to paddle a canoe. It came out pretty good, but I decided to build another one – this time a smaller one that would be fun to paddle solo into the smallest places. After swamping that canoe in the Puget Sound, I decided to build a kayak. Then I wanted a different large canoe and I built one. Then there was a restoration, another kayak, and a second restoration. A rowboat seemed in order, so I built one. Along the way, I visited the Old Town factory store and came away with a small plastic kayak that could be bounced off of rocks and paddled in a creek. That produced a desire for a second creek boat and there happened to be used one for sale at a good price and now, somehow, I have a couple of factory-made boats as well as my hand-made ones.
There is no doubt that I own too many boats. And boats take up space. There are two boats in my stable that haven’t seen any water this year. And I licensed both of them, so there is no excuse except a lack of time and owning too many boats. So the first challenge of starting a new project is the simple fact that I already own too many boats. In order to reduce inventory and gain space, before I start a new project, I need to get rid of at least two boats. And, frankly, I’m not quite sure how to do that. I’m not the world’s best salesman and I don’t know what a fair price would be. There aren’t many hand-built boats in our area and so comparing the prices charged in national magazines might result in having no customers. I have been watching Craig’s List, but haven’t found any true comparables. And the problem of watching Craig’s List is that when I see a boat that is priced seriously under its true value, the urge to buy it seizes me. And I own too many boats.
The solution would be to give the boats away, but I’m not sure to whom they should be given. The ones I would part with aren’t my most beautiful or easiest to paddle boats. They have some challenges and shortcomings that I know well.
Sigh . . . so the dilemma remains unsolved. I know I’ll figure it out, but it will be a bit of a challenge.
Another challenge is that in order to start another boat project, I need to move a few things around in my garage. It has sort of filled up with stuff since I finished the last boat. I did have the car in that stall a few times, but then I brought in some wood to make paddles and used the garage to store some other things and at the moment, there is no room to start a project.
I know people who have their shops and garages perfectly organized. You know the saying, a place for everything and everything in its place. My garage is more like, “a place for many things and many things all over the place.” I have made many different attempts at organizing my garage and I have some very nice toolboxes and other storage devices. The problem is that I am reluctant to get rid of something that might someday be useful and I tend to think that I might use that thing sooner than I actually do. That combined with the fact that I often have several different projects going at the same time results in more than a little bit of confusion.
I have the habit of stuffing spare screws and nuts and bolts into the same container that also has some odd electrical connectors and some parts for a roof rack and perhaps a few bits of wire and some actual boat parts. This has the happy side effect of when I am looking for something particular, say a 2½-inch, 5/16 stainless carriage bolt, I might instead find a couple of boat cleats, a perfectly good fuse and a small toggle switch. That might lead me away from the project that needed the bolt to the project for which I purchased the switch and fuse in the first place, except that I really don’t like wiring that much and that project was for the trailer and the trailer is in storage. No, I believe the fuse and switch were for a project on the old camper that we sold. But I should keep them in case I need them someday for a project on the new camper. Now where can I put them where I’ll remember where they go. Let’s see, with other electrical bits. Here is a coffee can with wire nuts on top. I’ll put them in here. Now, look, there is the bolt I was looking for! You get the picture.
This kind of event occurs all the time in my garage. Now, I remember seeing those boat parts. What did I do with them? These days there are enough unfinished projects around my house that every excursion into the garage threatens to have me going to the garage with one project in mind and emerging with another project.
I have discount cards at two different hardware stores and am a member of the frequent customer club at a big box discount home supply store as well. I think that I have so much hardware store experience in part because their supplies are better organized than mine. I know where to find the right stainless steel carriage bolt at the hardware store.
So this afternoon I’ll work in the garage for a while. I claim that I am organizing and cleaning, but I doubt that an outsider will consider the place to be clean when I finish. I, on the other hand, might just discover a new project worth pursuing.
You know, that fuse and toggle switch could work for a small electric winch to load boats on my truck. I bet I could build one if I made a few trips to the hardware store.
To be clear at the outset, I am not a professional boat builder. I cannot, in my wildest imagination, think that I could build boats well enough or fast enough to earn my living with the craft. I started building a canoe because I wanted to paddle a canoe. It came out pretty good, but I decided to build another one – this time a smaller one that would be fun to paddle solo into the smallest places. After swamping that canoe in the Puget Sound, I decided to build a kayak. Then I wanted a different large canoe and I built one. Then there was a restoration, another kayak, and a second restoration. A rowboat seemed in order, so I built one. Along the way, I visited the Old Town factory store and came away with a small plastic kayak that could be bounced off of rocks and paddled in a creek. That produced a desire for a second creek boat and there happened to be used one for sale at a good price and now, somehow, I have a couple of factory-made boats as well as my hand-made ones.
There is no doubt that I own too many boats. And boats take up space. There are two boats in my stable that haven’t seen any water this year. And I licensed both of them, so there is no excuse except a lack of time and owning too many boats. So the first challenge of starting a new project is the simple fact that I already own too many boats. In order to reduce inventory and gain space, before I start a new project, I need to get rid of at least two boats. And, frankly, I’m not quite sure how to do that. I’m not the world’s best salesman and I don’t know what a fair price would be. There aren’t many hand-built boats in our area and so comparing the prices charged in national magazines might result in having no customers. I have been watching Craig’s List, but haven’t found any true comparables. And the problem of watching Craig’s List is that when I see a boat that is priced seriously under its true value, the urge to buy it seizes me. And I own too many boats.
The solution would be to give the boats away, but I’m not sure to whom they should be given. The ones I would part with aren’t my most beautiful or easiest to paddle boats. They have some challenges and shortcomings that I know well.
Sigh . . . so the dilemma remains unsolved. I know I’ll figure it out, but it will be a bit of a challenge.
Another challenge is that in order to start another boat project, I need to move a few things around in my garage. It has sort of filled up with stuff since I finished the last boat. I did have the car in that stall a few times, but then I brought in some wood to make paddles and used the garage to store some other things and at the moment, there is no room to start a project.
I know people who have their shops and garages perfectly organized. You know the saying, a place for everything and everything in its place. My garage is more like, “a place for many things and many things all over the place.” I have made many different attempts at organizing my garage and I have some very nice toolboxes and other storage devices. The problem is that I am reluctant to get rid of something that might someday be useful and I tend to think that I might use that thing sooner than I actually do. That combined with the fact that I often have several different projects going at the same time results in more than a little bit of confusion.
I have the habit of stuffing spare screws and nuts and bolts into the same container that also has some odd electrical connectors and some parts for a roof rack and perhaps a few bits of wire and some actual boat parts. This has the happy side effect of when I am looking for something particular, say a 2½-inch, 5/16 stainless carriage bolt, I might instead find a couple of boat cleats, a perfectly good fuse and a small toggle switch. That might lead me away from the project that needed the bolt to the project for which I purchased the switch and fuse in the first place, except that I really don’t like wiring that much and that project was for the trailer and the trailer is in storage. No, I believe the fuse and switch were for a project on the old camper that we sold. But I should keep them in case I need them someday for a project on the new camper. Now where can I put them where I’ll remember where they go. Let’s see, with other electrical bits. Here is a coffee can with wire nuts on top. I’ll put them in here. Now, look, there is the bolt I was looking for! You get the picture.
This kind of event occurs all the time in my garage. Now, I remember seeing those boat parts. What did I do with them? These days there are enough unfinished projects around my house that every excursion into the garage threatens to have me going to the garage with one project in mind and emerging with another project.
I have discount cards at two different hardware stores and am a member of the frequent customer club at a big box discount home supply store as well. I think that I have so much hardware store experience in part because their supplies are better organized than mine. I know where to find the right stainless steel carriage bolt at the hardware store.
So this afternoon I’ll work in the garage for a while. I claim that I am organizing and cleaning, but I doubt that an outsider will consider the place to be clean when I finish. I, on the other hand, might just discover a new project worth pursuing.
You know, that fuse and toggle switch could work for a small electric winch to load boats on my truck. I bet I could build one if I made a few trips to the hardware store.