In the room next to my library we have a small chest freezer. The freezer provides good storage for food for our home and is relatively energy efficient. It also provides a large flat surface that is perfect for unrolling boat plans. I sometimes refer to the freezer as my “chart table.” Right now there are a set of plans for a Guillemot Expedition Single kayak, drawn by Nick Schade. I don’t know how much time I have invested in staring at those plans, but it has been significant. It takes me quite a bit of time of studying before an actual boat begins to surface in the garage. Then throughout the building process, I keep coming back to the plans, looking at details, considering how best to build a particular part, making sure that my measurements are correct and the like.

Out in the garage, what you can see barely looks like a boat. The first step was building a new box beam. The 2” x 4” x 20’ beam was made out of plywood with the joints staggered. We can’t obtain dimensional lumber in our area that is straight enough to make a strong back to build a boat, so I’ve made my beams out of plywood for all of the boats over about 12 feet that I have made. The beam then was cut down, as this boat will be 19 feet long and the tapers at the bow and stern require that the beam be tapered to fit the forms. At this stage of the building, the beam has a form at right angles every foot of its length. It has started to become 3-dimensional. For the most part the forms are properly spaced (measure, measure, measure again), plumbed and set up square to the beam. I have used small shims to get everything true, but they will be measured and probably adjusted again before I start to glue anything to them. I have also scarfed together the long strips for the sheer line - the place where the hull of the boat meets the deck. Clear wood the length of the boat just isn’t available, so the strips have to be glued together with joints that run diagonal to the length of the strip.

the next steps will be to shape the strips with a wood plane - narrow at the ends and wider at the middle. Then they have to be planed to the exact shape of the sheer. That angle changes with every form, so it is slow work. I like to match the forms as I plane, which means I have to be able to envision the strips mirrored because the angles are opposite on the opposite sides of the boat. When I get the strips shaped, I will dry fit them and hold them in place with clamps. That takes 36 clamps just to hold those two strips in place. Boat builders collect a lot of clamps. I’ve blogged about clamps before and I’ll probably take some pictures of all the clamps on the forms. It is pretty impressive. It is slow work and getting the first planks just right is key to the success of the entire boat project. After a couple of planks have been fitted on each side, the hull will take shape quickly. I only have to plane the ends of the strips, so they can be shaped, dry-fitted and glued in a short amount of time - a perfect stage for my lifestyle. I don’t have large amounts of time for boat building very often.

It occurs to me as I begin this new boat how much I like boat plans. I have plans for boats that I have already completed that I occasionally will get out and study. I have plans for boats that I have not built - and some I probably never will. Having the plans for the current project out on the top of the freezer gives me the opportunity to study them at great length. Sometimes I find myself just staring at the front page and daydreaming about the finished boat.

I guess that boat plans are a bit like the Bible. Boat plans are not boats. They are not even three-dimensional. They won’t float for long. They won’t hold any weight and they would quickly be destroyed by immersion in water. You can’t paddle a set of plans.

The Bible is not a life well-lived. It is not a description of how to organize a church. There are sections with lots of rules, but there are other sections that provide guidance on interpreting the rules and not how to avoid excessive legalism in the application of rules. There are stories of the past and visions of the future.

It isn’t written like a guidebook. There is lots of good and rich material for parents in the book, but it would probably not be the best reference for settling down a crying baby in the middle of the night.

What it is is the collection of the stories of our people. There are a couple of thousand years of stories based not just on the experiences we shared by people of faith, but also the inspiration that has come from lives of prayer, devotion and careful listening to God. Like boat plans, the Bible is complex and requires more than a small amount of study to decode all of its nuances. Like boat plans, the Bible provides a guide for a life of faith, but it is not the life itself.

The Bible is our book for developing and deepening our relationship with God. The lives we live are our contribution to that relationship. And one thing is clear from reading the Bible: this is not a one-generation effort. Our lives are part of a much bigger picture. In that way it isn’t much like a set of boat plans at all. The goal of the plans is to build and someday paddle a single boat. It can be achieved in a lifetime. I can be achieved in a year. If one were to devote full-time energy to the project, it could be done in a few weeks.

A life of faith is a much bigger project.

As such, it requires even more study.

I keep several copies of the Bible in my home and several more at the office.

Despite the fact that I have many boats, I still enjoy studying plans.

After more than six decades, studying the Bible remains another of the loves of my life.

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