I decided a year or so ago that I wanted a boat to be able to explore more of my home here in Southeast Alaska. So I started looking. I wanted something big enough to be comfortable in for a few days at a time, safe enough to handle the weather here, be able to take two or three people, but small enough that I could afford to pay for the gas. I looked at lots of boats and religiously watched the classifieds and read Craigslist, but everything was either too expensive, too old, too big or too rundown. What's left?
Build my own. That started a whole other search and what I finally settled on was a Tolman Skiff. A gentleman by the name of Renn Tolman started building boats in Homer, AK a number of years ago and after many iterations finally settled on a series of designs ranging from an 18' skiff to a 24' full cabin cruiser, stitch-and-glue plywood sheathed in fiberglass, that worked well for folks in Homer. Then he wrote a book about how to build your own.
I spent two weeks trying to find someplace to build it. Plan A was rent some shop space. Bzzzt. Either it was too expensive (I'm not paying more in rent than it costs to build the boat) or folks were skittish about the idea. Plan B was rent some land and build a temporary structure. Bzzzt. No one was interested in that idea as well. Plan C. Well there wasn't a Plan C because I didn't think it'd be that hard. Plan C became a call to my folks. My parents have a home on a large lot with a huge relatively flat beach area so I called and asked if I could use that. Mom said, "Why don't you just use the area next to the garage?" Uh, ok! That was unexpected but I'll take it!
So I'm off on this crazy idea as of yesterday. This blog will be my attempt to document the process, cost and hours.
First, two loads of material from Home Depot. Then some landscaping as some rocks had to move and a tree had to go. Then lay down the floor structure. It's 18'x28', just long enough to hold the boat and wide enough to allow for inside working space. Later today I'll square and level the frame, put down plastic for a vapor barrier and screw down the decking.
10.5 Hours