Building a new boat

by John MacBeath Watkins

Today, Vashon Printing finally managed to output the full-scale prints of the panels of the boat I'm fixin' to build. I'm going to be building outdoors, so I'll be going slowly, on days when it's not raining, generally. I doubt I'll get much done before the Wooden Boat Festival the weekend of July 4. After that, the weather tends to dry out and I should have more time.

I've got an El Toro rig (the spars of which still need sanding and painting) which will power the boat. The boat will be narrow enough to put in the back of my compact pickup truck and 9 1/2 feet long. This is the shape of the hull:

I should be able to toss this in the back of the truck, go to my launching point, toss it in the water, plop the rig and rudder on it and go sailing. It will cost $80 less to take on the ferry than Black Swan on her trailer. I'm shooting for a weight of around 50 lb., and I can always use a hand truck or something to move the boat if I have to.

I'm not sure what I'll name the boat yet. Something small and clever. Elf would be dead easy to paint on the transom. It's cat rigged, so Meerkat is a possibility, as are any number of names related to the smaller real felines, such as Felix or Jellicle.

Meerkat was also the screen name of a departed internet friend.

More posts on this topic:

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/06/building-new-boat.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/07/building-meerkat-very-small-catboat.html 

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/07/building-meerkat-very-small-catboat_25.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/07/building-meerkat-very-small-catboat-yet.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/07/putting-on-goop-building-meerkat-very.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/08/building-meerkat-very-small-catboat.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/08/building-meerkat-saga-continues.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/08/building-meerkat-very-small-catboat_16.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/09/building-meerkat-very-small-catboat.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/09/meerkat-now-black-by-popular-demand.html

 http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/09/splash-launch-and-first-sail-building.html

 http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/10/meerkat-victorious-building-meerkat.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/10/meerkat-gets-meerkart-and-some-sailing.html 

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2012/11/picture-of-meerkat-racing.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2013/02/building-meerkat-alternate-rig.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2013/03/by-john-macbeath-watkins-well-its.html

http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/2013/04/building-meerkats-crabclaw-rig.html