The Beginnings

This is the very first post of this blog that hopes to record the entire process of building a 32ft ocean going sailboat. The intended vessel is an approx. 32ft junk rigged sailing dory, designed by the American designer Jay Benford. The design is one of a family of sailing dories from Mr Benford, that are fairly well-known and are proven ocean-going cruising vessels.

I have some experience of boat building and renovation. Pre kids, I completely rebuilt a ferro-cement junk rigged sailboat and sailed several thousand ocean sea miles with her, and have since built three other small boats - an optimist (for my daughter), a Selway-Fisher Wren canoe and a San Francisco Bay Pelican. This boat is, obviously, a somewhat larger undertaking.

As to the choice of boat for this project, opinions about boats vary wildly - particularly on internet forums. I've made my carefully considered choice based on my experience of boat building, living aboard and sailing, and I believe it to be the right choice for me. It might not be the right choice for others. Frankly, I don't care.

I'll come back to the plans, etc in a later post and will start here with the first hands-on event of the building process. Clearly, in order to undertake such a project, a suitable building site is needed. I am lucky enough to live on a half-acre plot in the north of Germany, and on this plot is what was originally an old nissan hut building that served as a garage. I put a rough concrete floor in this structure about 15 years ago, and a storm about 10 years ago forced some renovation of the building.  I have since renovated 3 sides - the 4th was inaccessible due to a rather large rubble pile and some significant tree stumps and bushes. The building itself is about 5m wide and (I'm going to mix my units here) about 27 ft long - clearly not long enough to build a 32ft boat in. The first job therefore, was to get rid of the bushes, tree stumps and rubble, and put in a concrete base for the shed stretch.

The Boatshed (tidy front view)

Side View (with rhubarb and gooseberry bushes)

Boatshed (untidy back view - with concreted extension base)

Hard at work (with kids and fairly decrepit mixer)