Welcome to my boat page... This site was last updated November 8, 2001

To anyone and everyone considering building a small wooden boat in your garage: It's hard for me to express how much fun and how gratifying this project has been. This is my first attempt at boatbuilding, but it's something I've always wanted to do. It takes a little patience, but it's so thrilling to see everything come together! GO FOR IT!

Skip all this chit chat... take me straight to the boatbuilding -
(this is going to skip the "choosing a design" page...

Introduction.

About four or five years ago, my brother-in-law and I were drooling over the little wooden jonboat that my dad built some thirty years ago. My dad offered to build each of us a similar boat, all we had to do was buy the materials. We ordered some very hard to get and expensive sheets of 4 x 10' fir marine grade plywood as recommended by dad. However, that's about where it ended. My dad, with his heart of gold, is retired and spends nine months of the year on the beach, fishing in Florida. During the time he spends "up here" in Indiana, he's very busy maintaining the house, drinking coffee with the guys, among plenty of "other projects" of his own. To sum it up, he really doesn't have time to build a couple of boats. So what's keeping me from building one myself? After all, I have a nice sized garage that's just screaming at me to fill every empty nook and cranny with a project. And there's that big space in the garage where my truck sits that would look much more sexy with a half-constructed wooden boat in that spot. So I loaded up the plywood, and set out to find plans for my first boat project.

>> First step: Choosing a design >>

Disclaimer: This was my first boatbuilding project, so by no means do I claim to be an expert or know the best way things should be done. I just believe you might benefit if I share some of the things I learned while building my boat. Plus it's always fun to see how someone else did it. If you see a flaw in my methods, please let me know. If you think you know a better way, I would love to hear it. If you try something based on my recommendation and it doesn't work or you screw up, don't blame me. I take no responsibility for the methods or recommendations contained in this website. Basically you're on your own. And keep this in mind: Boatbuilding is a whole lot of fun, but boating is serious business. A boat that is not built properly can be very dangerous. User your common sense, use your best judgement, and always wear a lifejacket (or at least have one you can grab real quick, just in case you used flour instead of epoxy and your boat dissolves once you're off shore).

If you have any comments or suggestions, I would love to hear them. Especially if you see that I'm doing something seriously wrong. Help me out. Send me an email at mattchew_38@yahoo.com

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