The impetus for my current project...

I say this is my current project, rather than my first, because I've already done a few things on the Capri 14 that my friend Rosy gave me a year ago. However, this is definitely my first boat building project!

Sailing and boating have been dreams of mine for as long as I can remember. There is an aura of adventure and freedom that follows from embarking on the open water in a sailing vessel. With the wind driving you as a wealth of free energy that power cruisers can't even dream of, an easily driven hull that could be human powered in the necessary circumstances, and an absence of roads to hinder and restrict your heading, the world lies bare before you, waiting to be explored! Even if it's on the much smaller scale of the local Lake McIntosh :-)

My current project is a cedar strip canoe. This means that it will be made out of long, thin strips of cedar, which will be sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass and epoxy resin. The cedar strips will be lain out over forms, glued together, and then covered in fiberglass and epoxy. There are other, simpler ways to build boats, but strip-building lends itself very well to the long, flowing curves of a canoe, as well as making for a very light, very beautiful final product.

I had considered other methods and other boats, but most of these called for the use of marine quality plywood, which would be difficult to find and procure here in the Denver area; especially in the small quantities that I would be using for my first boat. Cedar is much more readily available in this area.

Among the boats that I had considered building before is the D4 dinghy, designed by Jacques Mertens, and almost identical to the one shown here. This is a small dinghy about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide that can be sailed or rowed. The plans are available for free download from the internet and it is a well known and popular boat in the amateur boatbuilding community. My thought was that I could build this boat relatively quickly, easily, and cheaply. While building this small boat, I would gain some valuable experience and could have some fun with it while working on a slightly larger dream boat. In addition, a small dinghy like this would come in very useful if I am to have small sailing yacht someday. :-)

The main thing I wanted from my first boat would be something that could be carried on top of the car and launched in local lakes relatively easily by myself, since I'm reluctant to put a hitch on the Altima and us it to launch a boat from a trailer. I also wanted a boat that would get Sarah excited about joining me on the water. My first boat would also have to be fairly straight forward to build and relatively inexpensive. I wanted my first boat to be an investment in my future boats, both in experience, building up my collection of tools, and return on capital should I one day decide to sell it to finance something larger.

Based on those considerations, I decided against building the D4 dinghy. It would require a small quantity of marine quality plywood, which as I stated above is a difficulty. As a sailing boat, it really would only accommodate one person, so having Sarah join me for that wasn't likely. My past boating experience, other than in the Capri 14, has been in paddling canoes and kayaks, so I see rowing as more of a utilitarian exercise than a pleasurable one. Also, in this area, there just isn't much of a resale market for dinghies that I am aware of. So I reconsidered what I would build and decided on a canoe.

My decision to build a cedar strip canoe was based on the following:

• I have experience with paddling various types of canoes on the Ozark National Scenic River-ways with Discovery Ministries in Missouri and love the feel of the paddle and the maneuverability, versatility, load carrying capacity, and gracefulness of these craft.
• Sarah has experience canoeing, also, and seemed more excited about a canoe than a dinghy.
• I'm fairly familiar with the strip-building technique from my time in Chicago when I extensively researched and considered building a cedar strip sea kayak at that time. I decide on a canoe, rather than a kayak, for this project because canoes are simpler to build without the decks, Sarah could join me in it, I prefer the sitting up position of the canoe, and the canoe lends itself to recreational sailing better than a kayak, where sailing is more of a utilitarian exercise.
• Strip-built craft generally have a higher resale value and return on investment than one would expect out of a plywood, plank sided dinghy. They can be built very lightly and still be very durable, and do it with an elegant beauty.
• Being longer and narrower, a canoe can make for a faster, more thrilling experience when modified for sailing than a short, squat dinghy.
• My friend Jud, from Camp Como often takes a fall canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and I have dreamed about going with him on one of these trips. The experience would be incredibly heightened by doing it in a boat that I have built myself.

And so it was with the previous considerations that I embarked the project that is rapidly filling my garage at present...