I suppose that it's finally time that I emerge from my fortress of solitude and start posting some progress pictures of my (sort of) Sea Knight build.
I've wanted to build my own boat for quite some time and with a little encouragement from my 86-year-old grandfather and parents I decided to take the plunge!
I’d like to first start by saying thank you to those that have taken the time to post their builds as well as those that regularly share their opinions, expertise, and support to those that are just starting out! Not unlike many on this forum, I am by no means a skilled carpenter or wood worker, nor have I ever built a boat, and so seeing so much support and wealth of information has been tremendous. Reading this blog is ultimately what gave me the confidence to say, “I can do this.”
Now onto the good stuff!
After a massive number of hours researching various boat building sites, companies, and designs I finally settled on a plan that I felt checked all of the boxes for the type of boat I wanted to build, the Sea Knight! My Grandfather, who has built a few smaller boats himself and has had several larger boats built for him has been helping me since the very beginning. Here we are at our weekly “boat and brunch” meeting.
The main reason this thread is titled as “my (Sort Of) sea knight build” is that, from mostly my Grandfathers encouragement, I have decided to make several special modifications. Hopefully I am not committing some terrible form of blasphemy. The beam has been widened by four inches and the length has been stretched to 20½ ft. I will be adding a couple additional items to ensure that strength is maintained down the line.
My first big chore was to clean up the shop and get it ready to go!
Lumber was then ordered and promptly delivered thanks to the fine folks at Westwind Hardwood over on Vancouver Island.
Got to love it when Christmas comes early!
This is strictly boat lumber and I will still need to head out to a local shop to grab lumber for my build form. The frames will be cut from VG douglas fir, the keel, battens, chine, etc will be cut from white oak (damn this stuff is heavy), and all plywood is Hydro Tek Meranti Marine Mahogany BS1088.
Once I got all the lumber pulled into the shop and sorted I couldn’t resist drawing out the approximate shape of the hull! The first step will be to get going on the build form.
I will do my best to document the whole process and keep the progress pictures coming!