The Beginning

I spoke on the phone for the first time with Graham Byrnes, the designer of the Core Sound 17 (and many others). If you don't know who or what I'm talking about, I recommend you first visit http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/cs17.htm. Graham is -- as advertised -- a most friendly and helpful chap.

Anyway, I ordered my CS17 kit and a couple of rolls of glass tape (which Graham suggested, as it will fit in the kit's box and thus save on shipping.) I have no doubt that I'll be ordering much else before this is done.

Some background to all this: I learned to love and -- to some extent -- to handle boats from my father when I was young.

I've sailed some -- enough to know the basics -- but I'm in no way an expert sailor.

I've worked with wood some -- as the owner of a few not-young houses inevitably does -- but I'm in no way an expert woodworker.

I've put a lot of my passion, over the years, into my work -- as a computer geek working for a healthcare information systems provider. It was a small company when I joined, but grew considerably...then was acquired, a couple of years ago, by a Giant Conglomerate corporation. I still have a job, but frankly...my work ain't nearly as much fun as it was before the acquisition.

So...I've got an excess of the passion I once put into my work. Add to that:

• I'm approaching retirement age (if not the actual capability to retire...my 401(k) is showing some signs of recovery, but has far to go.)
• Some years ago my wife and I bought a small house in Petit de Grat (a village on a small island off Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia) that is all about the water and boats. We are able to spend several months there in the summer and plan to spend much more time there when we can finally retire. I have an old (power) fishing boat, but have been longing for a sailboat for some time.

Anyway, this summer something snapped and I found myself surfing the web looking at sailboats that I might be able to build.

I first fell for the Goat Island Skiff, a design by Michael Storer in Australia. I went so far as to purchase the plans (for $100), download them and spend quite a bit of time reading. The boat is beautiful, lightweight and a reasonable size. In particular, it's a boat that can be rowed easily and well...a critical issue for me, as from our house in Petit de Grat, the only passage into open water is either (a) under a bridge or (b) through a narrow channel (with rocks on either side.) And I really don't want to depend on a motor in order to sail.

But I had a nagging feeling that the Goat might not be entirely appropriate for me, for a couple of reasons:

• Everything I read suggested that it was just a little bit tricky to handle, and in particular not exactly stable. One account I read described a man and his labrador retriever in the boat; when the man went forward to hoist the sail, his dog did too (labs always want to help!) and they managed to capsize the boat.
• In particular, I began to feel that this might be a boat for the harbor, but not for the open bay. We live on the harbor in Petit de Grat, but it's not a large harbor, and the whole point of sailing to my mind is to go places.
• And at present, we have three Labradors: Rosie, Ruby and Sadie.
  

So then I stumbled on the Core Sound 17. It seems to be made especially for me:

• While not a great rowboat, it is rowable.
• It has a roomy cockpit (sailing alone is fun, but we have guests often)
  
• The cat ketch sail rig seems to be particularly forgiving -- "self-tacking", un-stayed and easy to rig and unrig, not prone to capsizing, etc.
• It's specifically advertised as "blue water capable" (within limits).
  

And last, but not least, B&B Yacht Designs has a kit for the boat. And I need all the help I can get.

So: I plan to to build this boat, in my basement in Vermont, over the coming winter. I will document the process in this blog. And maybe someone, someday, will find it interesting, even useful, to read. We'll see.